German growth may just miss the 1.8 per cent currently forecast by the government this year, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told leading conservative lawmakers in a meeting yesterday, according to participants.

Schaeuble said whether or not the target could be reached depended on how the economy, which shrank by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, fared in the second half of the year. The government’s goal to have a balanced budget, however, was not in danger, the sources at the meeting said.