FRANKFURT, Dec 9 – The German trade surplus, a pillar of the eurozone economy, climbed to 13.6 billion euros (20 billion dollars) in October, figures released on Wednesday by the national statistics office showed.
In September, the biggest European economy and one of the world\’s leading exporters had posted a surplus of 10.4 billion euros.
German exports gained 2.5 percent from September to 74.6 billion euros, the Destatis service said.
Germany, one of the world\’s leading exporters, has begun to rebound from its worst recession since World War II, thanks in part to renewed foreign demand for the country\’s industrial goods and chemicals.
Destatis also cited German central bank figures which showed the current account of the balance of payments had a surplus of 11.0 billion euros in October.
The current account is an overall measure of all current payments into and out of a country or region.
Exports to other European Union members in October came to 46.6 billion euros, a decrease of 16.5 percent from the same month a year earlier, while imports fell by 11.9 percent to 40.6 billion euros, the data showed.
Exports to other countries fell by 14.9 percent to 28.0 billion euros, while imports were off by 21.4 percent to 20.4 billion, Destatis said.
