GERMANY’S export sector is in good shape and is unlikely to be hurt by the Volkswagen scandal, although concerns remain about the economic slowdown in China, the BGA exporters’ federation said yesterday.

    “In the first half of this year, Germany’s foreign trade exceeded all expectations,” BGA chief Anton Boerner said.

    “Despite a number of different stumbling blocks ... we’re confident about the outlook for the coming months, too. We expect to reach new records both this year and next year,” Boerner said.

    “But we mustn’t let ourselves be deceived by the positive figures,” he cautioned, warning of “huge challenges ahead.”

    For this year, the federation was projecting export growth of 6 percent to 1.191 trillion euros (US$1.3 trillion), Boerner said.

    That was even more optimistic than the 4.5 percent increase that it had forecast in March.

    Imports were projected to increase by 4 percent to 947 billion euros.

    In the first six months, exports grew by 6.9 percent to 595 billion euros, driven by strong demand for German-made goods in European partner countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and France, but also in the United States, BGA said.

    The federation attributed the buoyancy of German exports to the low price of oil, the weak euro and the European Central Bank’s low interest rate policy.

    Nevertheless, Boerner said the economic slowdown in China was “a source of concern” for German exporters, even if it represented a “natural process of maturing of the Chinese economy.”

    “But if China were to export its own problems, the German economy would not escape unscathed,” he said. (SD-Agencies)