International trade continues to play an important role for Germany's economic model and, if we look closely at the groups of goods, is relatively well diversified despite the high importance of capital goods. The Corona crisis brought global trade and Germany's trade to its knees and quickly affected the country's important trading partners. To be sure, trade in goods is recovering faster than trade in services. But exports and imports of capital goods fell particularly sharply in the crisis, already weighed down by weak global investment activity before it hit. Investment activity will pick up when the global and German economies recover and economic uncertainty decreases. That will also provide impetus for trade in capital goods. In the longer term, digitalisation and the transition to a climate-neutral economy are important topics for international trade.

The coronavirus and foreign trade– the crisis accentuates long-term trends(PDF, 279 KB, non-accessible)

Further information: Germany's strong link to the global economy

The coronavirus crisis and its impact