91.   Wirote said the minimum wage policy forces companies to pay high wages and thus are forced to close.

92.   Industrialists have warned that the effect of the exchange rate and of high wage awards will seriously damage their performance this year.

93.   It said overseas investors may have been frightened away by high wage, tax and duty levels as well as cumbersome bureucratic procedures.

94.   Another source of concern could be high wage agreements.

95.   And excessively high wage claims are also likely to set alarm bells ringing at the European Central Bank which watches wage developments closely for their implications for inflation.

96.   Both have benefitted from expanding world trade, experienced high wage gains and strong currency appreciation.

97.   Complaints about high wage costs were only partially justified, and were mainly motivated by political considerations, Ifo said.

98.   European Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg expressed concern Thursday at the potential inflationary risks that might rise from excessively high wage settlements in the euro zone.

99.   The OECD said the latest slowdown in Germany could be attributed in part to excessive exchange rate appreciation, but also to too high wage increases.

100.   The trend could prove explosive in the upcoming wage rounds, because unions use higher inflation to justify high wage claims while politicians and monetary officials preach wage moderation.