BERLIN, Germany—An expert panel advising the German government has suggested the country’s retirement age could be raised to 68, an idea that was swiftly rejected by senior officials on Tuesday as a national election nears.
The panel advising the Economy Ministry released a report Monday warning of “abruptly increasing financing problems” for Germany’s public pension insurance system from 2025 onward. It suggested a “dynamic coupling of the retirement age to life expectancy,” a system under which—if current forecasts of life expectancy are correct—the retirement age could be raised to 68 in 2042.
