Economic and trade cooperation

Apart from stable political relationship, China and Germany share strong trade and economic ties, with both economies becoming highly complementary.

Bilateral trade

The bilateral trade volume reached $183.88 billion in 2018 with year-on-year growth of 9.4 percent, according to data published in China.

China remained Germany's largest trading partner for a third consecutive year in 2018. Germany has been China's largest trading partner in Europe for 44 years.

China's economic restructuring and its booming market keeps on creating opportunities for German enterprises, while Germany's advanced facilities and managerial experience can in turn assist China's industrial upgrading.

Investment

Germany is the European Union's biggest investor in China. By the end of 2018, Germany directly invested in 10,272 projects in China, and the German side invested $33.39 billion in areas such as automobile, chemical industry, power generation equipment, transportation, steel, communication, etc.

According to China's Ministry of Commerce, China's accumulated non-financial direct investment in Germany was $13.49 billion by the end of 2018. In 2018, China's non-financial direct investment to Germany added $1.33 billion.

Technical cooperation

Germany occupies the top spot among European countries in terms of technology transfer to China.

As of the end of 2018, China signed with Germany a total of $82.53 billion worth of 24,476 technology transfer contracts.