German Export To U.S. Drops By 6 Percent In 2007

Berlin, Germany (AHN) - Germany's exports to the U.S. went down by 6 percent to only $115 billion in 2007, according to the Federal Statistics Office. It attributed the decline to the weakening American economy and the strong euro.

The downtrend is expected to continue this year as the same trend of a strong euro and a weak greenback continues. Gustav Horn, director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute, told Deutsche Welle, "Little by little, the turbulence in the financial markets and the strong euro are taking their toll."

Nevertheless, Germany's total export still went up in 2007 to $1.49 trillion (969 billion euro), or a growth rate of 8.5 percent. The largest growth was Berlin's exports to Warsaw which leapfrogged by 24.3 percent to $55.7 billion (36.1 billion euro).

While the Germany economy logged a 2.5 percent growth rate in 2007, this year it is expected to slow down to only 1.3 percent. Also this year, China is expected to overtake Germany as the global export leader as the Asian tiger expects to surpass the $1.4 trillion mark (one trillion euro) in export volume.