BERLIN, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Bundesbank will be able to transfer almost its entire 2008 profit to the Finance Ministry, a finance policy expert in the Social Democrats told a German newspaper on Monday.
"The Bundesbank profit will be turned over almost entirely to the federal government this year," Carsten Schneider, an SPD budget policy leader, told Handelsblatt newspaper.
Coalition sources told the business daily that the Bundesbank profit should be about 7 billion euros for 2008.
This year the Bundesbank will only need to pay a relatively small amount -- 36 million euros -- from its profits to cover liabilities left from former East Germany, coalition sources said.
Handelsblatt reported Bundesbank president Axel Weber will announce in March the level of the Bundesbank profits for 2008.
Last year in March, the Bundesbank transferred a 2007 profit of 4.3 billion euros to the Finance Ministry, the largest profit in five years. The key source of earnings in 2007 was interest income (13.1 billion euros).
(Writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Ron Askew)