A group of leading German economists lowered their growth forecasts for the German economy on Thursday, predicting that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) would shrink slightly during the current year. German GDP will decline by 0.1% over the course of 2024, according to the Joint Economic Forecast Project Group. That is down 0.2 percentage points from the group’s forecast from six months ago. The economists predicted only a tepid recovery in the next two years, with growth of 0.8% in 2025 and 1.3% in 2026. Six months ago, the group had predicted growth of 1.4% in 2025. “In addition to…