April 4th, Claus Vistesen, chief euro zone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said in a report that German trade data for February showed that net exports could grow again in the first quarter. Exports rose 4.0% month-on-month in February, compared with a revised 2.7% increase in January; imports rose 4.6%, reversing the previous month’s 2.1% decline.
The data showed that net exports of goods continued to rebound in the first quarter of this year after rebounding in the fourth quarter of last year, Vistesen said. Moreover, if the seasonally adjusted trade surplus in March had remained unchanged, the real goods trade surplus would have risen 5.9% quarter-on-quarter, though at a slower pace than the 10.7% rise in the fourth quarter of last year, he added.
