EUR: Germany’s trade surplus grows in another boost to the eurozone

There was some good news for Europe’s largest economy yesterday, as Germany’s trade surplus grew again. The figures released showed that exports rose by 3.1% in August, which is the biggest rise for a year, while imports rose by just 1.2%. Tellingly, it shows that the consistently strong performance of the euro this year has not prevented German companies from generating new business.

On the flipside of this, came the news that French industrial production unexpectedly fell by 0.3% in August. This was against an expectation of 0.4% growth so represents quite a shock, albeit not one that affected euro movements. Indeed, the single currency strengthened against the US dollar and more-or-less held steady against sterling.

It is a fairly quiet day today for economic data today for Europe, so attention will turn to tomorrow when the eurozone industrial production numbers are released.