The President of the German Institute for Economic Research, Marcel Fratzscher, does not believe in the danger of excessively high wage agreements, which in turn will further fuel the already strong inflation.

"It's a fairy tale," he said in an interview with Reuters news agency published on Wednesday.

The danger is not acute.

"In any case, there is no need to panic, also because the trade unions no longer have as strong a bargaining power as they did in the 1970s." There are rather significant losses in real wages.

Wages are likely to increase by an average of 4.5 percent this year - with inflation in Germany of around eight percent.

"I don't see any signs that we could slip into a wage-price spiral for the coming years either."

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had repeatedly warned of such a spiral and spoke of a real danger.

Fratzscher, on the other hand, said that many companies were not overwhelmed with the wage demands.

There is definitely room for maneuver in many sectors.

“In the energy industry, for example, there's no reason wage increases aren't well above inflation.

In other sectors that are facing major economic problems, the situation is different and wage restraint is right and necessary.”

DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi considers immediate wage increases in times of inflation to be particularly important - but also sees limits.

"It is absolutely clear that the current challenges cannot be solved with wage policy alone," said Fahimi of the German Press Agency.

"Then we would have to go into the collective bargaining rounds with wage demands of 15 percent and more." The IG Metall, for example, is pulling more money into the collective bargaining for the metal and electrical industry with a demand for 8 percent.

Fahimi described the wage agreements of the past few months and the current wage demands as "highly responsible and anything but exaggerated".

In times of inflation, the question of an immediate wage increase plays a central role.

Neither politics nor the collective bargaining partners could solve the current problems on their own.

"It is now precisely this interaction of political decisions and a collective bargaining policy that faces these realities that is important," said Fahimi.

High inflation will not simply go away.

"We can't just make up for it sometime later with a real wage development." That must now be well balanced.

Collective bargaining went beyond the mere question of wages.

"Many different aspects are weighed against each other - for example the lack of skilled workers and profitability." It is also about qualitative aspects such as working hours.

"There are industries with extremely high profits even now," Fahimi noted.

"Elsewhere, entire production lines are being shut down." Fahimi referred to energy prices and supply chain disruptions.