BERLIN, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The total value of arms exports approved by the German government fell by nearly a quarter in 2018, according to the German Ministry of Economic Affairs quoted by the German Press Agency (dpa) on Thursday.
German arms exports dropped by 22.7 percent, from 6.242 billion euros (7.1 billion U.S. dollars) to 4.824 billion euros (5.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, according to the ministry's response to a parliamentary inquiry tabled by Omid Nouripour of Germany's Green Party.
German arms deliveries to countries outside the European Union and NATO shrunk last year by 32.8 percent compared to the previous year.
For the third year in a row, the German defense industry witnessed a drop in exports licensed by the German government. Arms exports had peaked in 2015 at 7.86 billion euros (8.9 billion U.S. dollars).
The Federation of German Security and Defense Industries (BDSV) had already announced in late December that the downward trend in 2018 was also caused by the governing coalition's "more restrictive agreements" and by its "increasingly critical position" towards countries outside the European Union and NATO.
