Niedersachsen has left the crisis behind.

Niedersachsen has got back on course after the general economic crisis astonishingly fast - latest business statistics show an impressively positive trend. The IHK (Chamber of Commerce and Industry) economic climate index is currently at its highest level in ten years and has already topped the boom year 2006/7. Investment and employment plans for this year have significantly risen, and IHK business experts see developments in Niedersachsen optimistically and expect a growth rate of 2.5 per cent. One risk for business development, however, lies in the sharp rise in raw material and energy prices. Strong exports and lively domestic markets have driven these positive developments; in almost every sector, fuller order books in the last quarter of 2010 once again improved the business situation. Manufacturers of high-investment goods such as vehicles, machinery and electronics report more orders. In the logistics sector, Niedersachsen has asserted its strengths as an attractive investment location in Germany. The balance of the current logistics market overview in 2009/10 appears somewhat more stable than could have been expected a year ago. Current assessments and estimates of those surveyed for 2010 and 2011 about the number of projects, but also the capital backing investment, and employment trends, indicate a clearly positive development in the current and next year. As the driving forces behind this, harbour-hinterland connections are increasingly dominant, while logistic processes in the offshore wind power industry are making themselves felt in the emergence of new single-business logistics-related investments. Current surveys also show that Niedersachsen’s importance as a transport hub and gateway on a European scale is growing further, not least through the imminent commissioning of the JadeWeserPort (JWP) Container-Terminal-Wilhelmshaven from August 2012.