FRANKFURT (Dow Jones)--Germany lost its status as the world's No. 1 exporter last year, as the sharp slowdown in the economy battered investment levels across the globe, according to Federal Statistics Office data released Tuesday. Destatis said German exports fell 18.4% in 2009 as a whole, to a dollar equivalent of $1.121 trillion. By contrast, China's exports totaled $1.202 trillion. Germany's status as the world's largest exporter has been a source of national pride for many years, and its export sector, dominated by high-technology engineering and automotive companies, has been the mainspring of economic growth for all of the Federal Republic's 60-year history. However, with the global economy's center of gravity shifting eastward, China has been threatening to displace Germany at the top of the export league table for some years already. The collapse in business confidence and investment that followed the 2008 financial crisis has, at least in the short term, accelerated the trend. ""German industry has certain advantages in investment goods where it has conquered a lot of niches, but it seems that investment worldwide in the last boom was a little exaggerated, and it may not return to the previous level too quickly,"" said Kai Carstensen, an economist with the Munich-based ifo research institute. However, Carstensen said German industry remains globally competitive. More than 60% of Germany's exports go to other EU countries, many of which suffered severe recessions last year. Exports to the EU were down 19.1% year-on-year, but exports to other countries, including the faster-growing regions of Asia and South America, barely fared any better, falling 17.1%. The fall in exports bottomed out last spring, since which time the economy has been rebounding. Some recent data have caused concern among financial markets that the recovery may have slowed in the fourth quarter, but Destatis's data show that exports, at least, grew by 5.1% from the third quarter--only a fractional slowdown from a quarterly growth rate of 5.4% in July-September. ""The figures continue to suggest that Germany is benefiting from a healthy recovery in its export markets,"" said James Nixon, an economist with Societe Generale in London. Nixon noted that imports had risen for the first time in three months, breaking a trend in which exporters had been running down their stocks of raw materials rather than accumulate fresh inventories. In unadjusted terms, the December trade surplus fell to EUR13.5 billion in December from EUR17.2 billion in November, while the full-year trade surplus fell to EUR136.1 billion from EUR178.3 billion in 2008. In calendar- and seasonally adjusted terms, exports rose 3.0% on the month to EUR72.3 billion, while imports rose 4.5% to EUR55.6 billion. Exports have risen in seven of the last eight months in seasonally adjusted terms.