West Germany Overtakes U.S as Top Exporter

West Germany has overtaken the United States as the world’s top exporting nation, and Japan is close behind, according to figures compiled by the International Monetary Fund.

West Germany’s sales rose to $243.3 billion in 1986 from $183.9 billion the previous year. U.S. exports, meanwhile, were increasing more slowly, to $217.2 billion in 1986 from $213.1 billion in 1985.

Japan jumped from $177.1 billion in exports to $210.8 billion during the same period.

West Germany’s dominance as an exporting nation is even more striking considering that its population is barely one-fourth that of the United States: 60.1 million as opposed to 242 million. Japan’s estimated 1987 population is 122 million, according to the World Resources Institute.

An important reason for the big trade changes last year was the decline in the price of the dollar, which increased the value of other countries’ trade when expressed in dollars.

U.S. Biggest Importer

That also was a major cause for the 10% increase in the total world trade figure for the year, to $4.071 trillion.

The United States remained the biggest importer, buying more goods--$387 billion worth--than West Germany and France combined. They were the next two biggest buyers.

The figures are contained in the International Monetary Fund’s “Direction of Trade Statistics Yearbook” for 1987, which covers 160 countries doing about 85% of world trade. The one major country omitted is the Soviet Union, which does not belong to the fund.

As a group, the industrial countries shifted from a deficit with the Third World in 1984 and 1985 to a $35-billion surplus in 1986. The IMF said the developing countries were hit by “a sharp drop in the price of oil and weaknesses in the prices of other primary commodities.”

Middle East countries, which have had consistent surpluses, shifted into deficits last year because of the oil price cuts. Asian countries, with more emphasis on manufactured goods, had increased surpluses.