‘Germany to raise growth forecasts’

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The German government is set to fractionally upgrade its growth forecast for the current year, but slash its prognosis for next year, a government source told AFP on Tuesday.

The government, scheduled to publish its latest forecasts on Wednesday, is pencilling in growth of 0.8 percent for 2012, marginally more than an earlier forecast for 0.7 percent.

But Europe's top economy will grow by only 1.0 percent next year, instead of the 1.6 percent Berlin had previously been hoping for, the source said.

Last week, Germany's leading economic think tanks pared back their forecast for this year to 0.8 percent and slashed the prediction for next year in half to 1.0 percent, warning there was a “great danger” that Europe's top economy could fall into recession.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, too, acknowledged that after two “very good” years of growth, this year would be “weaker.”

German gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 4.2 percent in 2010 and by 3.0 percent in 2011. - Sapa-AFP