Germany has become “overconfident” and “complacent”, with the government pursuing policies that put its hard-won competitiveness at risk, some of the country’s top business leaders have warned.

Their criticisms of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government come as Europe’s largest economy is showing signs of slowing. They also raise concerns about Germany’s ability to continue driving growth in the stagnant eurozone after the introduction of a minimum wage and a reduction in the retirement age to 63 for certain long-serving workers.

“I think the biggest threat right now is really a kind of overconfidence in Germany, and with that comes a little bit of complacency,” said Kurt Bock, chief executive of BASF, the world’s biggest chemicals maker by sales. “You can see it in government policies that we are not really growth-orientated or business friendly, but rather much more orientated towards the distribution of wealth and serving the expectations of certain stakeholders.”