East Germany balance of payments 1970-1989

Between 1970 and 1989, East Germany exported approximately 113 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods, compared with imports worth almost 120 billion dollars. Throughout the 1970s, East German imports were worth nearly ten billion more than its exports (with totals of 27.3 billion and 36.8 billion respectively) before imports were reduced significantly in the 1980s to balance its national debt. The harsh austerity programs implemented throughout the 1980s, which attempted to balance this debt, are viewed as contributing factors to the fall of communism in East Germany and eventual reunification.