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Exports to crack €1 trillion in 2011

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Exports to crack €1 trillion in 2011
Photo: DPA

German exports are set to crack the €1-trillion mark for the first time history this year despite turbulence hitting the global economy and the simmering eurozone debt crisis.

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Exports, the driving force of Europe's biggest economy, will grow by 12.0 percent in 2011 compared to last year, to reach €1.075 trillion ($1.43 trillion), the BGA exporters' federation said on Tuesday.

Their value next year is expected to rise to €1.14 trillion. This rate of growth is "absolutely within the long-term average", BGA president Anton Börner told reporters.

Emerging markets will remain a strong outlet for German exporters, despite an expected slow down in global trade in the coming months due to the eurozone debt crisis and US economic gloom, he said.

"They continue to invest massively in the technologies of the future", in energy sectors as well as telecommunications and transport infrastructure, Börner said.

He said those markets included not only the emerging giants of Brazil, Russia, India and China, but increasingly also fast-growing partners such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Peru and Ecuador.

However, he warned that, with 60 percent of German exports currently going to its neighbouring trading partners, if the eurozone debt crisis worsened further "all forecasts will be null and void."

And he urged European leaders to send "clear political signals," adding that "the fact we are profiting massively from the euro doesn't mean we have to accept any old horse-trading simply to save the single currency."

Germany is insisting on a tightening of Europe's budgetary discipline as a condition for helping struggling countries.

AFP/The Local/mry

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