Office buildings are pictured in the financial district of Frankfurt, Germany, September 15, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s economy likely shrunk by around 0.3 percent in the third quarter, the IfW institute said on Friday, adding this was probably largely caused by declines in production in the auto industry due to the introduction of new pollution standards known as WLTP.

Stefan Kooths, head of the forecasting center at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), said growth in Europe’s largest economy was likely to pick up significantly again in the fourth quarter.

(The story corrects institute description in second paragraph)