BERLIN (AP) — The German government’s panel of independent economic advisers is forecasting that the country’s economy, which is Europe’s biggest, will grow by 3.1% this year. The panel’s new outlook issued Wednesday compared with a forecast of 3.7% in November, made at the beginning of a second round of coronavirus-related closures that are largely still in place. Last year, German gross domestic product shrank by 4.9%. That ended a decade of growth and was the biggest decline since the financial crisis in 2009. For 2022, the economists predicted growth of 4%.
