Prudent wage policies will contribute to containing overall price developments. Structural policy also has a role to play. Currently, 25 percent of prices in accession countries are still administrated. Microeconomic reforms and further price deregulation have to be carried out. Only then can the price mechanism fully work through to the economy - a defining feature of a fully functioning market economy.
But it is precisely because it is inevitable that we must face up to it. For the next few minutes, I would therefore like to show you, from an economic perspective, how demographic change in Germany will develop, what macroeconomic impact it may have and how policy-makers should try, as far as possible, to deal with this impact.