Germany to widen trade surplus

BERLIN - Germany could register the world's largest trade surplus of up to $200 billion in the fiscal year of 2012, a report by the Paris-based OECD showed on Monday.

The overall advantage of the competitiveness and quality of German products exports remained intact against the chronic eurozone debts crisis, and its trade surplus would continue to increase bolstered by the weakening euro exchange rate and falling commodity prices, according to Volker Treier, foreign trade chief of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (GCIC).

The OECD report, meanwhile, advised Germany to address its trade imbalance by increasing its overall investment.

"The investment rate in Germany is lower than in other major industrial countries," said Andreas Worgotter, an OECD expert on Germany.

Germany should provide even better access for entrepreneurs operating small and medium-sized firm to the capital markets, Worgotter said.

Germany is under mounting pressure of international criticism over its high trade surplus.

But German Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said it was wrong to slow down the exports through government interference, and "a current account surplus is, first of all, no excuse for European countries to act in their efforts of reducing budgetary deficits."