The German economy is expected to contract by 0.2% in 2024, an economy ministry spokesperson said on Monday, confirming an earlier report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
The government is cutting its forecast to an inflation-adjusted contraction from a previous projection of 0.3% growth this year.
This will be the second consecutive year of contraction for Europe's biggest economy, which was the weakest among its large euro zone peers last year with a 0.3% decline in gross domestic product.
Germany's leading economic institutes downgraded their forecast for 2024 at the end of September and expect the economy to shrink by 0.1% in their autumn joint economic forecasts.
The economy ministry incorporates the combined estimates from these institutes - Ifo, DIW, IWH, IfW and RWI - into its own predictions, which the ministry is due to publish on Wednesday.
"The autumn projection does not just consist of these three or four numbers that were mentioned," the spokesperson from the economy ministry said, in reference to the numbers published by Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
"It is an overall assessment of the economic situation, the economic prospects and also an idea of the underlying numbers, which allow a much more differentiated statement," the spokesperson said.
