The flags of EU and Germany fly in front of Reichstag building, the seat of the lower house of the German parliament Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, April 5, 2022. (REUTERS File Photo)
The rapid rise in energy prices is to cost Germany some €110 billion ($110 billion) in real income between 2021 and 2023, according to calculations by the Ifo Institute.
There will be correspondingly less to distribute to employees in wage and salary negotiations, the economists wrote in a report released on Tuesday.
"The current decline in real income is likely to persist in the coming years," Ifo's Timo Wollmershäuser said.
Real incomes are incomes adjusted for inflation. According to the study, the billions lost are the sum that has been spent on energy imports from countries over than Russia - €35 billion last year, €64 billion this year and another €9 billion in 2023.
In total, this would be the highest real income loss since the second oil crisis at the end of the 1970s, according to Ifo.