IMF to cut growth forecasts for Germany - Der Spiegel

BERLIN (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will cut its estimates for German economic growth in 2014 and 2015 to about 1.5 percent for each year because of the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East, weekly German magazine Der Spiegel said on Sunday.

The IMF, which is due to publish the forecasts on Tuesday, predicted in July that Europe's largest economy would expand by 1.9 percent this year and by 1.7 percent next year.

Der Spiegel said the IMF would also call on the German government to do more to boost public and private investment because this would help to prop up growth in the short term and bring benefits for the country in the medium term.

The finance ministry declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Europe's largest economy had a strong start to the year but shrank by 0.2 percent in the second quarter and some economists have warned of the risk that it was in recession between July and September, especially as business and investor sentiment has weakened.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said that German growth this year could miss the 1.8 percent currently forecast by the government, according to sources.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin and Gernot Heller; Editing by Greg Mahlich and David Goodman)