Poland overtakes Great Britain as Germany's fifth largest trading partner

Poland overtakes Great Britain as Germany's fifth largest trading partner

Berlin (Reuters) - Eastern Europe is becoming increasingly important for Germany's economy: Poland has ousted Great Britain from its position as Germany's fifth largest trading partner in 2019, the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations announced.

While trade with its eastern neighbour grew by 4.2 percent last year, it shrank by 1.8 percent due to the Brexit with the UK. "German trade with the four Visegrad states together exceeded the threshold of 300 billion Euros for the first time in 2019. Neither the USA nor China can keep up with this," announced the Chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, Oliver Hermes.

According to the report, China remained Germany's most important trading partner with a trade volume of almost 206 billion Euros. Trade with Russia shrank by 6.6 percent last year due to lower gas imports and amounted to only 57.8 billion Euros. By way of comparison, the total volume of German trade with Poland in 2019 amounted to 123.4 billion Euros.