Lower Saxony Companies Fear for Competitiveness, IHKN Economic Survey Shows

Status: 07/15/2023 10:36 a.m

The Lower Saxony Chambers of Industry and Commerce (IHKN) have presented their quarterly economic survey. The result: Many companies in the country fear for their competitiveness.

Overall, the IHKN draw a rather gloomy picture for Lower Saxony. Although the current situation is still satisfactory, the forecasts for the coming quarter are clearly worse. Accordingly, the high energy and raw material prices are major uncertainty factors. Particularly energy-intensive areas such as the chemical, glass and paper industries struggled with the high energy prices. New investments are hardly worthwhile for these companies, said IHKN general manager Maike Bielfeldt on Friday. These sectors now threatened to fall behind in international comparison. The shortage of skilled workers is also a concern for companies. The IHKN are therefore calling for more effort from politicians to attract skilled workers from abroad.

The mood to buy in Lower Saxony has recently increased again

In addition to a lot of skepticism, there are also rays of hope. For example, the buying mood of Lower Saxony has increased again in recent months. Clothing in particular is therefore being bought more frequently again. Despite everything, the results remain well below the average of recent years. According to the IHKN, this could be due to the fact that many people have not yet received any tariff and wage increases. Around 1,800 companies took part in the business survey.

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