BERLIN (Reuters) - A group of leading economic institutes is poised to sharply cut its forecasts for German economic growth to 1.3 percent for this year and 1.2 percent for next, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday.
The institutes, whose analysis flows into the government's own economic forecasts, had previously predicted Europe's largest economy would expand by 1.9 percent in 2014 and by 2.0 percent in 2015. They are due to publish their collective forecasts on Thursday.
The German economy had a strong start to the year but shrank by 0.2 percent in the second quarter. Some economists have warned there is a risk it will fall into a technical recession - defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction - in the third quarter.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Noah Barkin)