Figures released this morning showed that German exports fell in the third quarter, putting the brakes on economic activity as a whole.
But investment spending was up, auguring well for a long-awaited pick-up in domestic demand in the coming months.
German exports fell by 1.1% in the July-September period compared with the preceding quarter, federal statistics office Destatis said.
That dragged down growth as a whole, with gross domestic product expanding by only 0.1% on a quarterly basis in the three-month period. That was substantially slower than the growth of 0.4% recorded in each of the previous two quarters.
In a detailed breakdown which confirmed preliminary third-quarter GDP data released earlier this month, Destatis said that although exports had declined, imports rose by 4.3%.
But domestic demand, previously in the doldrums, showed an unexpected increase of 2.1%, driven mainly by a 1.3% rise in capital investment.
