China officially tops Germany as world's No.1 exporter

Official data released from Germany on Tuesday (9 February) confirmed that China has stripped Europe's largest economy of its top exporter title.

Data released by the German Federal Statistics Office showed the country's exports fell by 18.4 percent in 2009 when compared to the previous year, hitting a dollar equivalent of $1.121 trillion. China's exports for 2009 totaled $1.202 trillion.

Despite the drop, which represents the greatest year-on-year decline for Germany since 1950,...