REGENSBURG, Germany (AFX) - Bundesbank president Ernst Welteke said Germany will need "a lot of luck" to reach the figure of 0.75 pct growth this year, as predicted by finance minister Hans Eichel. Yesterday, Eichel said on German breakfast television growth will be 0.75 pct this year, well off the government's previous forecast of 2 pct. But Welteke said Germany will struggle to reach even this new forecast. "We will need a lot of luck to reach this figure," Welteke said on the sidelines of a university festival. However Welteke said recent explicit calls from European politicians for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates in response to the slowdown have overestimated the ECB's room for manoeuvre. "Political demands for interest rate cuts exaggerate the ECB's room for manoeuvre," Welteke said. He went on to say: "Economic developments do not depend on whether rates are cut or raised by 25 basis points." Welteke said he does not expect Germany to move into a recession, or to record negative GDP figures, even after the dramatic fall in the Ifo business confidence figures today. However he added: "The Ifo figures are the first confirmation of the expectation that after Sept 11 we will have a downturn in developments." He said today's fall is something that has not been witnessed for several years. The ECB takes "all data seriously", he noted.