According to a German statistics agency report released on February 20, China has surpassed the US to become Germany's largest trading partner. Germany's trade deficit with China reached a record level of 89.3 billion euros.
China is the largest supplier of goods to Germany since 2015. This shows the depth of the economic relationship between Germany and China.
Although the US has temporarily surpassed China to become Germany's leading trading partner in 2024, China regained its leading position in 2025. China's exports to Germany increased by 8.8%, pushing the total bilateral trade turnover to 251.8 billion euros.
Statistics show that German exports to China decreased by 9.7% in the same period. Last year, China's exports to Germany were worth more than 2 times the amount of goods that Germany itself sold to China.
Meanwhile, German exports to the US - Germany's largest importer of goods - decreased by 9.4% in 2025, causing the trade surplus between the two countries to decrease from 69.6 billion euros to 51.9 billion euros.
In general, exports increased by less than 1% while imports increased by 4.3% last year. Germany's trade balance remained positive and reached 200.5 billion euros.
The German economy suffered a shock after the conflict in Ukraine broke out. High energy prices in the country that once imported up to 55% of gas consumption from Russia are considered the main factor leading to economic decline.
In mid-January 2026, the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry pointed out a link between high energy prices and alarmingly high number of bankruptcies.
In early February 2026, the German Institute of Economics noted that the country had lost more than 1,000 billion USD of GDP in successive crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine.
