German exports plunge in March

The data illustrated the first monthly impact of the coronavirus epidemic on Europe's biggest economy. The drop was far steeper than a five percent forecast from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Some 108.9 billion euros ($118 billion) of German goods were sold abroad, while the country bought imports worth 91.6 billion euros - down by 5.1 percent from the level in February.

The bigger plunge in exports than imports reduced Germany's widely-criticised trade surplus to 17.4 billion euros, compared with 22.3 billion a year before. In Germany, late March brought the first shutdowns of much of public life to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2020

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