Austria's foreign trade slides into deficit of 7.1 billion euros in 2025

The largest hole in the trade balance was torn open by China, with a passive balance of 12.6 billion euros. Germany followed with a deficit of 7.2 billion euros. Together, the two countries account for a substantial share of the overall deficit. With the United Kingdom, the balance showed a deficit of 2.9 billion euros.

China and the USA as Main Drivers

"Ausschlaggebend für diese Entwicklung waren vor allem das gestiegene Handelsbilanzdefizit mit China infolge deutlich höherer Importe sowie der Rückgang des Handelsbilanzaktivums mit den USA aufgrund der um mehr als ein Fünftel gesunkenen Exporte", explained Statistik Austria Director General Manuela Lenk. Developments in the two major trading relationships thus shaped the overall picture of Austria's foreign trade in 2025.

With the USA, Austria still recorded a trade surplus in 2025, but only in the amount of a good 5 billion euros. The year before, the active balance had still stood at around 2.7 billion euros, before falling to just 0.2 billion euros. Domestic exports to the second-most important export market after Germany collapsed by 21.2 percent to 12.8 billion euros, while the value of imports from the USA – mainly chemical products – stagnated at 7.7 billion euros.

Chemical and Gas Imports from the USA Collapse

Chemical products, an important export category to the USA, saw a slump of more than 47 percent to around 2.7 billion euros. Gas imports from the United States also declined significantly: the import value fell by 32.6 percent, and the imported volume by almost 38 percent. Exports overall decreased by 8.3 percent. In total, exports to third countries fell by 2.7 percent to 128.9 billion euros.

By far the most important trading partner of Austria remained Germany, with an export share of 29.6 percent. Exports there declined by 1 percent in 2025 to 56.2 billion euros, while overall exports fell by 3.7 percent to 60.7 billion euros. On the import side, Germany dominated with a share of 32.2 percent, followed by China with 9 percent.

EU Trade Remains Stable

Austria's trade with EU member states developed more steadily. Deliveries to the EU rose by 0.7 percent to 129.1 billion euros. Imports from third countries, however, grew by 7.1 percent to 68 billion euros, resulting in a deficit of just under 0.5 billion euros in trade with countries outside the EU.

A clear distance behind Germany, the USA followed as an export market with a share of 6.7 percent. Austria supplies the country primarily with machinery and vehicles, accounting for a good 52 percent of exports; these exports, however, fell by more than 12 percent to around 6.7 billion euros. Concentration on a few partner countries is high: with the ten most important partner countries per direction of delivery, 72.1 percent of imports and 68.4 percent of exports were transacted.

Russia Loses Nearly All Its Standing as a Trading Partner

Apart from Liechtenstein, Slovenia, and Slovakia, all neighboring countries ranked among the top 10 partner countries for both exports and imports. This means the regional rootedness of Austria's foreign trade remains high, even though the dynamics with the major third-country markets are increasingly weighing on the balance sheet.

A particularly striking finding concerns Russia. Just 0.5 percent of domestic exports went to Russia in 2025, putting the country in 29th place among export markets. On the import side, it fell from rank 18 to rank 75, reaching only a 0.03 percent share. Imports from Russia thus declined by 97.3 percent compared to 2024 and effectively collapsed entirely.

Trade in fuels and energy, in which Russia had previously played a central role, slumped by 99.8 percent to 0.004 billion euros according to Statistik Austria. As a result, this sector barely played a role in Austria's foreign trade in 2025. The largely complete disappearance of energy imports from Russia fundamentally altered the structure of the trade balance.

Outlook for 2026

Overall, the 2025 balance sheet shows a dual picture: on the one hand, exports to the EU and trade with European neighbors remained stable; on the other, opposing developments with China and the USA led to a significant jump in the overall balance. Foreign trade with third countries, which had previously been slightly positive, tipped into the negative.

For the Austrian economy, the deficit means that the country imported more goods in 2025 than it exported. This worsens the current account in goods trade, even though service exports and other items in the national accounts can still influence the balance. The data from Statistik Austria refer exclusively to goods trade.

The coming months will show whether the trends described – particularly the shifts in trade with China and the USA – become entrenched or reverse again. The head of Statistik Austria pointed to "global uncertainties in international trade" ("globalen Unsicherheiten im internationalen Handel") as a defining feature of the past year, an indication that political and economic conditions are likely to continue strongly influencing trade flows.