The German economy, Europe's biggest, is projected to expand by around 2.6 percent this year, a slower-than-expected rebound from a pandemic-induced slump last year, largely due to bottlenecks in global supply chains, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier has said. The German government had originally been pencilling in gross domestic product growth of 3.5 percent for 2021, but has downgraded the forecast "because lots of goods cannot be delivered as there are shortages of raw materials in many areas," Altmaier has told ZDF public television. STOCKSHOTS of the German economy