Leading institutes halve German 2013 GDP forecast: paper

Germany's leading economic institutes have cut their growth forecasts for Europe's largest economy to 0.8 percent this year and to 1.0 percent in 2013, the business daily Handelsblatt said on Wednesday.

These figures compare with the institutes' previous spring forecasts of 0.9 percent growth for 2012 and 2.0 percent for 2013.

The four institutes are due to announce their revised growth forecasts on Thursday.

Citing confidential sources, the newspaper also said the institutes expect the euro zone to overcome its sovereign debt crisis next year and that German unemployment will continue to fall.

Other institutes and the International Monetary Fund have also recently trimmed their growth forecasts for Germany this year and next because of the global slowdown and recession in parts of euro zone.

(Reporting by Berlin bureau)