German exports get welcome boost from Eastern Europe, says business group

Germany's export business, struggling under high U.S. tariffs and a slump in China, got a welcome shot in the arm from trade with Eastern Europe in the first nine months of this year, Germany's eastern business association said on Wednesday.

Exports to 29 countries in Central and Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia, grew by 2.35% to 216 billion euros ($251 billion) in the January-to-September period, it said.

By comparison, Germany's overall exports rose by only 0.3% in the period as business with the U.S. and China shrank.

Germany faces a record trade deficit with China, with exports over the first nine months of the year dropping 11.9%, while those to the United States have also fallen by 7.4%, due in large part to Washington's tariff and trade policy. 

RELIABLE PARTNERS ONCE AGAIN

"The EU states in Central and South-Eastern Europe were once again reliable partners for the German export industry over the course of the year," Cathrina Claas-Muehlhaeuser, chairwoman of the Ost-Ausschuss Eastern Business Association, told Reuters.

"Exports to the region's two largest markets, Poland and the Czech Republic, alone grew by almost 5.6 billion euros." 

By contrast, exports to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Georgia shrank significantly, and trade with Russia and Belarus continued to shrink due to Ukraine war-related sanctions.

Overall, trade with countries in the region grew by 2.9% year on year to about 413 billion euros, said the group. 

GERMANY MUST EXPAND RELATIONS IN REGION

Claas-Muehlhaeuser stressed that economic and political relations with cooperative countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus must be urgently expanded amid competition.  

"We are concerned to see how China, as well as the U.S., are consistently pursuing their economic interests there and in the Western Balkans," she said, calling on the European Union to use its Global Gateway infrastructure investment programme to ensure "we do not lose these growth markets to our competitors."

Existing trade barriers must also be systematically removed in the European single market, and EU enlargement to the east and south-east needs to be pursued more decisively, she added.

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