(ANSA-AFP) - FRANKFURT, OCT 12 - Germany will sink into recession next year and inflation will soar, the government forecast Wednesday, as Europe's top economy battles skyrocketing energy prices following Russia's gas shutdown. The official predictions were the latest warning that Germany's economy, which was just getting back on its feet after the pandemic, is set to shrink in 2023 due to the fallout of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Unveiling the government's latest forecasts of 0.4 percent economic contraction and seven percent inflation for 2023, Economy Minister Robert Habeck painted a dark picture of a "serious energy crisis". It "threatens to become an economic and social crisis", he warned -- but insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin will "fail in this attempt to destabilise the basic economic and political order". (ANSA-AFP).