Germany’s finance minister has conceded the country can afford “some wage increases” as more than half a million metalworkers continued their huge warning strikes this week.

Some 600,000 members of powerful German union IG Metall, which includes a significant number of automakers and suppliers, walked out again insisting demands concerning agency workers and a 6.5% pay increase are met.

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But even though the labour body is leaving its wage demands to last on its list of negotiations with employers federation, Gesamtmetall, German Federal Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schauble has stepped into the row with his pay rise comments.

“He [Schauble] said in very general terms, Germany could afford some wage increase – he did not mention the demand of IG Metall,” a spokesman for the Finance Ministry told just-auto from Berlin.

“Germany could afford some wage increase because [it] is very competitive. Having said that, we should never do anything that should undermine this competitiveness. It was not a comment that named a company or demand of either side.”

The IG Metall union expressed surprise the Finance Minister had so publicly made his views known, noting it was rare for politicians to express their views on wage negotiations.

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“Schauble said it is possible or necessary the wages have to increase – it is very unusual to say that,” an IG Metall spokesman in Frankfurt told just-auto.

“He said Germany had done its homework and [undertaken] a lot of reforms. In comparison to other European countries, Germany could afford that increase.”

Talks are slated for next week between IG Metall and the employers, although Berlin is distancing itself from issuing any further views on pay increases.

“It is very unusual for a federal politician to comment on wages,” said the Finance Ministry spokesman. “The government has nothing to do with it.”