Trade surplus and industrial output slip

The slight fall of 0.5 percent in production after seasonal adjustments was counter to analyst expectations, which had predicted a modest rise of 0.4 per cent, said financial data firm Factset.

The slide is mostly due to a dip in earnings from investment products (-1.4 percent), Destatis said.

While German exports did grow by 1.2 percent over the month to 98.9 billion euros ($11 billion), imports rose faster to 79.6 billion euros, it said.

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