Germany's Ifo institute trims 2024 GDP forecast again due to budget

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's Ifo institute again downgraded its 2024 economic growth forecast on Wednesday, citing uncertainty caused by changes to the federal budget necessitated by a constitutional court ruling.

The institute now expects Europe's largest economy to grow by 0.7% this year instead of 0.9% previously forecast in mid-December.

"Now that the German parliament's budget committee has agreed on the federal budget, we estimate that it passed additional savings of just under 19 billion euros ($20.64 billion)," said Timo Wollmershaeuser, head of forecasts at Ifo.

"The overall scope is roughly in line with what we estimated in our risk scenario for 2024 in December. The economic impact is also likely to be of a corresponding magnitude," he added.

($1 = 0.9205 euros)

(This story has been corrected to fix 'next year' to 'this year' in paragraph 2)

Germany's Ifo institute trims 2024 GDP forecast again due to budget