The UK has become Germany’s biggest trading partner for goods and services, according to banking group the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF).

OMFIF notes the UK “inched ahead of France, the US and the Netherlands” in data covering the first nine months of 2012. German-UK trade turnover totalled €153bn (£129bn) in this time, compared with Franco-German and American-German totals of €150bn and a Dutch-German sum of €146bn. German trade with China had a total value of €115bn.

The OMFIF statement reads: “Since the birth of economic and monetary union (EMU) in 1999, the fundamental interests of Europe’s largest economy have moved progressively further away from business and financial links with the core countries of the Euro area.”

• For more on recruitment issues in Germany, see our Global Spotlight from the July edition of Recruiter.