China has officially surpassed Germany as the world’s largest exporter. From the Washington Post:
China’s customs agency released figures Sunday showing that total exports last year were more than $1.2 trillion, slightly ahead of the $1.17 trillion forecast for Germany by its foreign trade organization, the Federation of German Wholesale and Foreign Trade.
“This is just one more step by China in attaining economic size commensurate with its population,” said Arthur Kroeber, managing director of Dragonomics, an economic research firm in Beijing. Germany has a population of about 80 million, while China’s population is about 1.3 billion.
“The next big news will be when China surpasses Japan to become the world’s second-biggest economy,” Kroeber said. Analysts say that is likely to happen this year.
An opinion piece from Germany’s Deutsche Welle says these figures don’t mean a lot:
The People’s Republic exported goods worth a total of 1,070 billion dollars (749.7 billion euros), according to figures published by Beijing a few days ago.
Now, data from the German statistical office in Wiesbaden shows that German exports for the same period total some 734.6 billion euros ($1,052 billion). Germany, which for years took pride in its position as “world champion exporter”, has now lost the top spot, falling roughly 15 billion euros behind.
But is any German business leader now looking for a new sword, so that he might fall on it in shame? Most likely not, for this comparison between Germany and China is nothing more than an exaggerated obsession within the media.
People love the highest, the fastest, the furthest, the most expensive – they love the champions, and they love the world champions even more. Stories like this always sell well – even though they merely play on people’s love of wealth and success, and have little relevance in the real world.
In reality, there are two export champions -China and Germany. Both supply the rest of the world with their products – and they do each other no harm in the process.
Meanwhile, Xinhua reports that, “China might become top world exporter, but weakness remains.“
