Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that Germany’s population could grow significantly in the coming years as the government tries to boost immigration to avoid labor shortages and a pension crisis, Reuters reported.

The government is working to attract foreign workers to avoid a pension crisis despite an aging population that makes a projected population increase of 7 percent to 90 million by 2070 likely, Scholz told a citizens’ forum in Potsdam, near Berlin.

The German government last month agreed to plans to reform immigration laws as Berlin tries to open up the labor market in Europe’s biggest economy to badly needed workers from outside the European Union.

The government has said it wants to boost immigration and job training to tackle skills shortages plaguing Germany’s economy as an aging population puts pressure on the state pension system.

Scholz said current population growth, partly due to rising immigration, means the government may not increase pension contributions until the end of its term in 2025.

Germany’s statistics office said last week that the population is likely to rise by 1 million to 84 million this year due to migration from Ukraine. In the coming decades, if immigration is high, it could reach 90 million, he added.