"Our forecast is that we will be at an inflation rate of 7 to 8 percent over the course of the year. In the event that energy imports are more limited, we could even see 10 percent and more," Karl von Rohr said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper.
He warned that Germany needs to be prepared for inflation rates "that we haven't seen since the 1970s."
In March, the annual inflation rate reached a record high of 7.3 percent in Germany.
President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Joachim Nagel, said earlier this month that average annual inflation in Germany may jump to 6 percent in 2022.
A poll conducted for the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily and published earlier this week showed that over half of Germans do not support an immediate introduction of a ban on Russian oil and gas imports.