FRANKFURT, Nov 21: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is to raise its forecast for German growth this year and next year, the fund’s mission chief to Germany, Ajai Chopra, said in an interview to a newspaper on Tuesday. “Our current forecasts are outdated. We’re going to revise them,” Chopra told the Financial Times Deutschland.

The IMF was now forecasting German gross domestic product (GDP) growth of “around 2.5 per cent” for 2006 and “around 1.5 per cent” for 2007.

Previously, the fund had been expecting the eurozone’s biggest economy to expand by 2.0 per cent this year and 1.3 per cent next year.

“Germany is booming. The recovery is going to continue,” Chopra said, pointing to falling unemployment, robust exports and a rebound in household consumption.—AFP