According to data from the Ifo institute, Germany's current account surplus shrank but remained by far the world's largest last year due to strong exports, that is likely to renew criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel's fiscal policies.

Germany's current account surplus, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments, was the world's largest for the third year running in 2018 at $294 billion, followed by Japan with $173 billion, the Ifo figures showed. Russia came in third with a surplus of $116 billion.

When measured in relation to economic output, Germany's current account surplus shrank for the third year in a row, however, falling to 7.4 percent in 2018 from 7.9 percent the previous year, according to the Ifo figures.

Since 2011, Germany's current account balance has been consistently above the European Commission's indicative threshold of 6 percent of gross domestic product and the surplus reached a record high of 8.9 percent in 2015.