BERLIN (Reuters) – German exports to major oil producers are soaring despite the slump in oil prices to their lowest for more than a decade, data showed on Wednesday, countering worries that weaker demand from Gulf countries was slowing growth in Europe’s largest economy. German exports to Saudi Arabia jumped by 13 percent to 9.1 billion euros (7.02 billion pound) from January to November in 2015 compared with the same period in the previous year, Germany’s Statistics Office said. Exports to the United Arab Emirates soared by about 30 percent to some 13 billion euros in the same period, topping the record 11.4 billion reached in 2014 as a whole. Volker Treier, head of Germany’s trade and industry body DIHK’s foreign trade department, said this was because the UAE had diversified its economy with Dubai in particular turning itself into a hub for transport, logistics and finance. He said Saudi Arabia was still spending billions of euros on infrastructure, including public transport in Riyadh, and that German expertise was in demand for such projects. The German economy grew by 1.7 percent in 2015, its strongest rate of expansion for four years, mainly driven by robust increases in private and public consumption. Trade contributed only 0.2 percentage points due to an economic slowdown in China and other emerging markets.

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