German trade contracted sharply in November, data released Tuesday showed, adding to signs that growth slowed in Europe's biggest economy as 2012 came to an end.
The Federal Statistics Office said month-on-month exports dropped by 3.4 per cent in November, after a jump in exports to countries outside the European Union failed to offset a slump in demand from the crisis-hit eurozone. German exports edged up 0.2 per cent in October.
Imports dropped by a surprise 3.7 per cent in November after gaining a solid 2.9 per cent in October.
Analysts had expected exports to decline by 0.5 per cent and imports to nudge up by 0.5 per cent.
Year on year, exports to non-EU nations including the world's two leading economies - the United States and China - rose by 5.6 per cent in November but fell by 5.7 per cent to Germany-s key trading
partners in the 17-member eurozone.
Total exports stagnated in November compared with the same month in 2011, while imports declined by 1.2 per cent.
The trade surplus widened to 17 billion euros (22.3 billion dollars) in November from 15.7 billion euros in October, the statistics office said.