BERLIN, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Germany's current account surplus has decreased for the third consecutive year to 7.4 percent of the German annual economic output, still totaling 294 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, the German Ifo Institute announced on Tuesday.

The German surplus is the world's largest in 2018. Japan has the world's second largest surplus of 173 billion U.S. dollars and Russia the third largest with 116 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2015, Germany's current account surplus stood at a record high of 8.9 percent of the German annual economic output but has since declined gradually. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission have urged Germany for years to further decrease its trade surplus.

In 2018, the decline was mainly caused by the decrease of the trade surplus with other European countries as imports of Germany grew quicker than exports. The annual economic output including inflation had risen "quite strongly" by 3.4 percent, according to the Ifo institute.

Germany's surplus still remains at a high level despite having continuously declined over the past three years. The European Commission would consider values of up to six percent to be "sustainable in the long term", Ifo institute pointed out.

Last year, the European Commission announced an investigation into Germany's current account balance. The commission considers the German surplus to jeopardize economic stability in Europe.

Germany would be "building up more financial receivables from abroad than foreign receivables from Germany", according to the Ifo institute. Permanently high current account surpluses could become problematic if the "receivables cannot be redeemed, for example if the foreign country is no longer able to service the interest burden".