German trade surplus hits record high in 2014

Germany's trade surplus hit a record high in 2014 after a slumping euro helped to power a surge in exports in December, data released on Monday showed.
Month-on-month exports from Europe's biggest economy jumped by 3.4 per cent in December after contracting by 2.2 per cent in November, the statistics office (Destatis) said, according to the (dpa) news agency.
Analysts surveyed by dpa-AFX had predicted a more modest 1-per-cent gain in December.
December imports dropped by a surprise 0.8 per cent after climbing 1.2 per cent in November, Destatis said.
The bigger gain in exports compared with imports resulted in a trade surplus of 21.8 billion euros (24.7 billion dollars) for December.
However, for the full-year 2014 German exports jumped by 3.7 per cent compared with 2013 with imports climbing by 2 per cent.
This resulted in a record foreign trade surplus of 217 billion euros in 2014 compared with the previous all-time high of 195.3 billion euros, which was set in 2007.
The trade surplus stood at 195 billion euros in 2013.