Germany's trade surplus narrowed slightly in December, as export momentum tailed off at the year-end, but Europe's biggest economy notched up a record surplus for the whole year, data shows.
In seasonally adjusted terms, Germany exported goods worth 92.5 billion euros ($A141.35 billion) in December, down from 93.3 billion euros in November, the federal statistics office Destatis said in a statement.
Imports fell less steeply to 74.0 billion euros from 74.4 billion euros.
That meant the seasonally adjusted trade surplus - the balance between imports and exports - decreased to 18.5 billion euros in December from 18.9 billion euros in November.
In unadjusted terms, the trade surplus also declined, to 14.2 billion euros in December from 19.1 billion euros in November, as exports fell faster than imports, Destatis said.
Taking the year as a whole, however, the German trade surplus soared to a record 198.9 billion euros - the highest ever since foreign trade data were collected - from 189.8 billion euros in 2012.
Germany has come under fire for its booming trade surplus, with critics arguing that its economic prowess comes at the expense of the eurozone's weaker members.
The critics argue that Germany needs to boost domestic demand and so help its EU partners by spurring export-driven growth in their economies rather than continue to rely mostly on its own exports for growth.
But Berlin has persistently dismissed the criticism, arguing that the high surplus reflects the competitiveness of German firms.
And the latest trade data appeared to support this.
Full-year exports to the euro area were down 1.2 per cent, Destatis calculated, while exports to non-eurozone countries increased by 2.6 per cent.
Exports to the EU inched up by 0.1 per cent in the whole of 2013 and exports to the rest of the world slipped by 0.5 per cent.
