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East German Foreign Trade (1956-85)

East Germany’s external economic relations showed both its strong trade dependency on the Soviet Union, the dominant player in COMECON, and its politically willed isolation from international markets. From the 1970s onward, East Germany – like nearly all COMECON states – expanded its trade with the West to close gaps in its domestic market and to acquire the technology it lacked.

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Regional Breakdown of GDR Foreign Trade
(Percentages)

Country or country category

Five-Year Average

1956-60

1961-65

1966-71

1971-75

1976-80

1981-85

Imports

Socialist countries

72.7

75.9

72.2

64.9

65.9

66.9

Of these:

 

COMECON countries

65.4

71.6

68.4

62.1

62.8

64.1

USSR

43.6

47.5

42.3

33.9

35.2

40.4

Remaining COMECON countries

21.8

24.1

26.1

28.2

27.7

23.7

Western industrial countries

23.3

20.1

23.9

30.9

29.0

28.9

Developing countries

4.0

3.9

3.9

4.0

5.1

4.2

Exports

Socialist countries

75.9

76.9

74.6

72.7

72.6

64.9

Of these:

 

COMECON countries

68.3

72.9

69.3

68.9

68.9

62.3

USSR

43.0

44.7

39.9

36.6

35.2

36.2

Remaining COMECON countries

25.3

28.2

29.5

32.3

33.7

26.1

Western industrial countries

20.3

18.9

20.8

23.2

21.9

29.3

Developing countries

3.8

4.1

4.6

4.1

5.5

5.8



Source: Federal Ministry for Inter-German Relations, ed., Materialien zum Bericht zur Lage der Nation im geteilten Deutschland [Materials Accompanying the Report on the State of the Nation in a Divided Germany]. Bonn, 1987, p. 607.

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