Namibia’s economy grew by N$1.1 billion in Q3, recording a 2.3% growth compared to a decline of 12.3% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2020, latest official figures show.
According to the Namibia Statistics Agency, the size of the economy was estimated at N$45 billion, in nominal terms, in the quarter under review relative to the N$ 43.9 billion registered in the same quarter in 2020.
“This shows that the size of the economy increased by N$ 1.1 billion over a year,” NSA CEO and Statistician General, Alex Shimuafeni, said on Thursday.
In the period under review, double digit growth rates were registered in mining and quarrying which grew by 41.9%, while hotels and restaurants grew by 19.5%, with 21 216 passengers arriving through the country’s international airports in October 2021 compared to 15 199 passengers in September 2021, and 3 941 passengers in October 2020.
“The expansion of economic activities in the third quarter of 2021 was observed in almost all the sectors of the economy. The following sectors also posted strong growths during the period under review Health (7.3%); ‘Agriculture and forestry’ (5.9%); ‘Transport and storage’ (5.6%); and ‘Real estate and professional service’ (4.2%),” he said.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery sector contributed N$3.4 billion (7.6% ) to GDP in the quarter of 2021 under review, with the Agriculture sub sector recording the highest contribution of 4.5%, followed by the Fishing subsector (2.8%) and Forestry subsector (0.3%).
“For the quarter under review, Namibia’s export earnings from commodities of ‘Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing’ sector amounted to N$3.7 billion, whereas the import bill expanded to N$1.4 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of N$2.7 billion,” the NSA boss said.
However, decreased economic activity was observed in the secondary and some tertiary industries, with the construction sector recording the deepest contraction of 43.7%, followed by the financial services sector declining by 10.9%.
At the same time, the manufacturing’ sector declined by 2.6% and ‘Wholesale and retail trade’ sector also registered a contraction of 0.7%, Shimuafeni said.
