German exports set an all time record in June, and exports to the United States fell 14.2 percent in the same month
Germany has never sold more abroad in one month.
The Federal Statistical Office put June exports at 139.3bn euros on a calendar and seasonally adjusted basis, 0.9 percent above May and 6.6 percent above June 2025. That is the highest monthly figure the adjusted series has recorded, ahead of the 139.1bn euros of September 2022. Imports came to 123.9bn euros, up 4.4 percent on the month and 8.4 percent on the year, a level last exceeded in November 2022.
Where the record did not come from
The United States remained the single largest destination for German goods, at 12.1bn euros. That figure was 14.2 percent below May and 1.2 percent below June 2025. Across the first six months Germany sent 74.4bn euros of goods to America, 5.8 percent less than in the same half of 2025.
China took 6.2bn euros in June, down 0.3 percent on the month and down 12.3 percent across the half year. Exports to the United Kingdom went the other way and rose 7.7 percent, to 7.3bn euros.
The growth is inside Europe. Exports to European Union member states rose 1.3 percent on the month to 79.3bn euros and were 7.5 percent higher over the half year, while exports to countries outside the union rose 0.3 percent on the month and finished the half year 0.9 percent lower than a year earlier.
The balance is the number that moved
The trade surplus narrowed. Germany ran a surplus of 15.4bn euros in June, against 19.3bn in May and 16.4bn in June 2025. Over the first six months the surplus came to 105.0bn euros on exports of 816.6bn and imports of 711.6bn, which is 0.9bn below the 105.9bn of the first half of 2025 even though both flows grew over the same period. Imports say the same thing from the other side: China was the largest source at 16.5bn euros and up 9.1 percent on May, while imports from the United States fell 9.6 percent to 8.7bn and imports from the United Kingdom fell 16.7 percent to 3.2bn.
There is a second set of figures underneath. Before any calendar or seasonal adjustment, exports were 147.0bn euros and imports 128.2bn, up 13.9 percent and 14.0 percent respectively on June 2025, leaving a surplus of 18.8bn against 16.5bn. The office says the adjusted values are notional calculated figures and that setting them against the unadjusted series serves little purpose, so the two sets are best read separately.
No reasons attached
The office does not explain any of it. The release states that detailed results are not available this early and that it is therefore not possible to give reasons for changes in foreign trade as a whole, or in trade with individual countries and groups of countries. The figures are provisional. Nothing in the document accounts for the drop in shipments to the United States, and no official is quoted anywhere in it.
