Exports of Germany's electrical industry decreased in September by 0.9 percent year-on-year to 18.1 billion euros (21.5 billion U.S. dollars), the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI) said on Friday. The decline slowed down in September as the figure for August was still a drop of 7.7 percent year-on-year to 15.4 billion euros, the ZVEI said. "The latest decline was therefore much smaller than in the third quarter as a whole," when the industry's exports fell by five percent to 51.5 billion euros, said ZVEI chief economist Andreas Gontermann in a statement.
In September, "industry deliveries to five of the top 10 countries increased again," the ZVEI noted. Exports to China, the most important export customer of the German electrical industry, increased by 8.6 percent year-on-year to 2.1 billion euros. At the same time, the other five of Germany's key export countries recorded declines. According to the ZVEI, exports to the United States dropped by 7.1 percent to 1.5 billion euros and to France by 5.4 percent to 1.1 billion euros. "In the first three quarters of this year, deliveries increased to China and Poland only," Gontermann said.