“German exports rose in December, capping a record year even as the sovereign debt crisis weighed on euro-area demand.
Exports, adjusted for working days and seasonal changes, increased 0.3 percent from November, when they fell 2.2 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists forecast a 1.4 percent increase, according to the median of 15 estimates in aBloomberg News survey. Exports rose 3.4 percent in 2012 to a record 1.1 trillion euros ($1.47 trillion), the office said.
Export growth has slowed as the debt crisis damps sales within the euro area, prompting German companies to target faster-growing markets in Asia. The economy, Europe’s largest, is showing signs of recovering from a fourth-quarter slump as the debt crisis eases. Investor and business confidence improved more than forecast in January and the unemployment rate fell to 6.8 percent, matching a two-decade low.
“Strongly improved business sentiment backs our expectations of a gradual improvement throughout the first quarter,” saidAlexander Koch, an economist at UniCredit Group in Munich.
