According to a recently published foreign trade report by German-African Business AssociationGerman-African trade reached a new record high in 2022.
The transaction volume for 2022 is 59.8 billion euros and is therefore 21.3% higher than the previous year’s value of around 49 billion euros. At 26.4 billion euros, exports in the record year 2022 were 14.5% higher than the previous year. In the case of imports, the increase of 27.4% to 33.4 billion euros is even more marked, according to the report.
“We consider it positive that both imports and exports have grown significantly. Even though rising commodity prices have played a major role in imports.” So comments Christoph Kannengiesser, Managing Director of the German-African Business Association.
Mr. Kannengiesser also clarified that the figures show that African countries are gaining in importance for the German economy and that African countries are showing a growing interest in working with Germany.
Instruments need further improvement
“The official trade figures also confirm the positive record of our member companies for the year 2022. In a survey, more than 63% were satisfied with their activities in Africa. 43% want to invest more in their business in Africa in 2023. The new record figures also show that German companies were able to build on the pre-crisis years of 2018 and 2019 in their activities in Africa, despite the mode of economic crisis “. This is also what the general manager of the association says.
“In order to further strengthen German-African economic relations and also to diversify regionally, the instruments of foreign trade must be further improved. More favorable export credit guarantees when trading with African partners make German companies more competitive on the markets,” he further explains.
At the same time, Mr. Kannengiesser believes that the federal government’s investment guarantees and other foreign trade promotion instruments can be expanded to facilitate the transition from trade to investment and thus to job creation in African countries.
For the year 2023, the association hopes for far-reaching reforms in favor of increased activities by German companies and their African partners; as well as a high-level African summit focusing on trade and investment.
