West German Trade Surplus Tops Japan’s

West Germany today announced a record trade surplus for 1989, putting Europe’s dominant economic power ahead of Japan for the first time since the 1970s.

Official data showed that Bonn’s exports jumped 5% to $81 billion last year as demand intensified for its quality engineering goods--surging past Japan’s trade surplus of $77 billion in 1989.

But economists said West Germany may not hold onto first place for long once economic union with East Germany, a goal the Bonn government is rapidly promoting, is realized.

“We’ll see a significant drop in the surpluses because of East Germany,” said Ulrich Hombrecher, German economist at Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale in Duesseldorf.

East Germany’s citizens, who have suffered for years from consumer goods shortages, will soon start a shopping spree to fill their spartan homes. Many probably will travel to West Germany to buy consumer goods not made here, which would swell West Germany’s imports and curb its foreign surpluses.

“Many of the things they want, like electronic goods, are not made here and will be imported,” Hombrecher said.

Such imports could slice West Germany’s 1990 trade surplus by up to $12 billion, said Warren Oliver, an economist at British brokerage Phillips & Drew.

West Germany’s 1989 current account surplus, which includes services like banking and insurance as well as goods, rose 16% to $60 billion.

Bonn last had a bigger current account surplus than Japan in 1976, when a huge oil price rise cut Japan’s surplus.

Tokyo, which faces continued criticism from trading partners, expects its trade surpluses to fall this year.