German think tank says retirement age eventually will have to rise to 70

German think tank sees retirement age rising to 70

BERLIN — A German think tank is arguing that the country’s retirement age will eventually have to be lifted to 70.

The conservative economic think tank IW said Wednesday that low birth rates and growing life expectancy leave no way around increasing the retirement age again.

The government decided in 2007 to gradually lift the legal retirement age from 65 to 67 from 2012 through 2029.

IW chief economist Michael Huether told the Rheinische Post newspaper that the government should continue to push back retirement after 2029.

There’s little sign of any political will to do so. Raising the retirement age to 67 has been an issue of heated debate, and opposition parties argue there already are too few employment opportunities for older people.