New data has emerged today revealing German exports and imports figures for September 2018. The provisional data has been supplied by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

German exports totalled €109.1 billion for the month, down by 0.8% from in August 2018. Equally, German imports reached the value of €90.7 billion, down by 0.4% from the previous month.

Compared to the same month a year earlier, exports dropped by 1.2% but imports have increased by 5.3% year on year.

Foreign trade balance was positive, showing a surplus of €18.4 billion in September 2018.

A year earlier in September 2017, the surplus amounted to €24.2 billion.

At the start of the year in January 2018, Germany exports were at €107.1 billion and imports totalled €89.9 billion.

Additionally, the provisional results of the Deutsche Bundesbank revealed that the current account of the balance of payments showed a surplus of €21.1 billion in September. This figure takes into account the balances of trade in goods including supplementary trade items (+€19.7 billion), services (-€1.8 billion), primary income (+€6.8 billion) and secondary income (-€3.6 billion). This figure compares to a current account surplus of €26.9 billion in September 2017. Compared to the same month a year earlier, exports to EU countries decreased by 0.4%, whereas imports jumped by 5.8%.

Moreover, in September, Germany exported €64.7 billion of goods to the Member States of the European Union. Likewise, it imported €52.1 billion of goods from those countries. German exports of goods to countries outside of the EU totaled €44.4 euros in September and imports from those countries reached €38.6 billion. Compared to September 2017, exports to countries outside of the EU dropped by 2.2% and imports increased by 4.7%.

Today, the markets lie in the aftermath of the U.S mid-term elections. With the dust settling from the elections, the DAX Index jumped sharply in the Wednesday session. Trading closed on Wednesday evening with the DAX (INDEXDB:DAX) up by 0.83%.

In addition to the DAX Index, the FTSE 100 rallied following the US midterms.