According to preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office for the reporting period 2023, the Free State of Thuringia was able to increase its export volume in value terms by almost 6 percent to 18.7 billion EUR. Thuringia's imports rose by 4.5 percent to 19.1 billion EUR. Thus, the trade volume amounted to 37.8 billion EUR and the trade deficit was just under 0.5 billion EUR.
Interestingly, it can be noted that the growth value of foreign sales of Thuringian manufacturing enterprises with more than 50 employees, as reported by Thuringian State Office for Statistics, has decreased by 0.7 percent; domestic sales of these companies, however, have increased by 0.9 percent. This observation shows that larger Thuringian companies in particular are struggling in the current international business.
For the Federal Republic, developments are partly contradictory: export volume shrank by 2.0 percent, and import volume even declined by a significant 10.1 percent. This is partly due to falling import and export prices. But in real terms, too, exports and imports of goods fell compared with the previous year. With a total trade volume of 2.9 trillion euros, Germany achieved a trade balance surplus of 210 billion euros.
