Germany clocks up record exports, trade surplus in 2014

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, clocked up a record volume of exports and attained its largest ever trade surplus in 2014, data compiled by the federal statistics office Destatis showed on Monday.
Germany exported a record 1.134 trillion euros ($1.28 trillion) worth of goods last year and imported goods worth 916.5 billion euros.
That pushed the trade surplus -- the balance between imports and exports -- to an annual total of 217 billion euros, Destatis calculated in a statement.
In December alone, Germany exported goods worth a total of 98.7 billion euros in seasonally adjusted terms, an increase of 3.4 percent from November, Destatis said.
Imports, on the other hand, fell by 0.8 percent to 76.9 billion euros.
That meant the seasonally adjusted trade surplus expanded to 21.8 billion euros in December from 17.9 billion euros in November.