Müller: "Bavarian exports hold out in the face of more difficult conditions"
MUNICH "Bavarian industry is braving the risks of the global economy. Up to now, our companies have coped well with the impact of the euro, oil prices and turbulence in the financial markets", commented Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Emilia Müller, referring to the latest foreign trade figures for the first quarter of 2008. They show that in the first three months of this year, Bavarian exports were 3.9 % up on 2007 at euro 39.4 billion. Industry’s export share rose to 50.6 %. Imports increased by 6.8 % to euro 32.1 billion in the first quarter. The export surplus therefore came to euro 7.3 billion.
"It is true that the more difficult global economic conditions are not passing us by unnoticed either and our international business is no longer expanding quite as vigorously as in past years. But with its focus on high-quality capital goods, its presence in all the major sales markets and its high degree of international competitiveness, the Bavarian economy is well positioned for maintaining its expansion course. Bavaria’s strategy of guiding the small and medium-sized businesses into the global markets is paying off", Müller said.
All in all, exports continued to increase in the 1st quarter of 2008. The picture has become more differentiated though. Demand from the USA, for instance, slumped by 3 % to euro 4 billion. This probably reflects both the strong euro and the rather unstable state of the US economy. Exports to some European countries were also down: Italy -3.8 %; Great Britain -1.7 %; Spain -3.3 %, Belgium -7.4 %. Exports to the eurozone are therefore stagnating (-0.6 %).This rather low-key trend was, however, made up by sustained dynamic trade with the booming economies in Central and Eastern Europe and Asia. Bavarian supplies soared to China (+ 22.5 %), the Czech Republic, (+ 12.7 %), Poland (+ 21 %) and to Russia (+ 40.3 %). And exports to the OPEC states also went up appreciably by 11 %. Müller: "The oil producing nations are once again spending their rising revenues on capital goods, and it is Bavarian industry in particular that is benefiting from this trend."
The export hits are still machinery and chemical products. They increased at above-average rates ranging from 4.8 % to 6.5 %. Exports of motor vehicles rose by 2.8 % and of electrical engineering products by 2.6 %. These four groups alone reached an export value of euro 29 billion, in other words three quarters of total Bavarian exports. Star performer in terms of growth in the first quarter was the food industry, which managed to step up its exports by nearly a quarter to euro 1.8 billion in the first three months.
On the imports side, it was mainly raw materials that skyrocketed - fueled by the price explosion for raw materials. In the first three months, they climbed by 74.6 % to euro 4.1 billion, reaching a 12.7 % share of Bavarian imports. Corresponding surges in imports were also recorded from the Arab States (+78.4 %), the OPEC States (+58.7 %) as well as from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The volume of imports from Russia alone as the most important supplier of raw materials more than doubled in the first quarter to euro 1.5 billion, so that Russia now ranks in 7th place among Bavaria’s most important import partners.
Source: Invest in Bavaria
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