ifo Researcher Potrafke Critical of Germany’s Pension Package
ifo researcher Niklas Potrafke has criticized the pension package recently adopted by the German government. “Freezing the pension level at 48 percent and suspending the sustainability factor completely ignores the realities in Germany. Demographic change demands a different pension policy. The introduction of the sustainability factor 20 years ago marked a cautious start to taking account of demographic trends in the pension system. In Germany, fewer and fewer young people have to look after an increasing number of older people. With the population structure developing in this way, pensions will have to rise much more slowly,” Potrafke said in Munich on Wednesday.