Namibia’s trade deficit widened by N$700 million in March 2025, driven largely by a sharp increase in petroleum oil imports, the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has reported.
According to the NSA’s latest trade bulletin, imports of petroleum oils surged by N$999 million from the previous month, contributing to a trade deficit of N$2.1 billion in that category alone.
Petroleum oils accounted for 20% of all imports during the month, sourced predominantly from India, Oman, and Italy.
“Imports were mainly dominated by essential items such as petroleum oils and motor vehicles (for commercial purposes), thus reflecting dependency on foreign industrial inputs to support domestic activities,” said NSA Statistician General and CEO Alex Shimuafeni.
In contrast, petroleum oils comprised 12.6% of Namibia’s total re-exports in March, generating N$429 million, despite the country having spent N$2.5 billion on overall exports.
Namibia exported goods valued at N$10.1 billion in March, a slight decline of 0.4% from February.
Cumulatively, exports for the first quarter of 2025 stood at N$30.9 billion—an increase of N$5 billion from the N$25.9 billion recorded during the same period in 2024.
Precious stones (diamonds) emerged as Namibia’s top export in March, making up 20.1% of total exports and destined mainly for Botswana and the United States.
“Fish came second, accounting for 13.6% of total exports, destined mainly for the Spanish, Zambian and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) markets. Non-monetary gold occupied the third position, accounting for 12.4% of total exports, solely destined for South Africa. Uranium ranked fourth, accounting for 11.0%, with the commodity mainly destined for China and France,” the NSA said.
The Southern African Customs Union (SACU) remained Namibia’s primary export destination, receiving 38.5% of the country’s total exports for the month.
Meanwhile, the country’s import bill climbed to N$12.8 billion in March, a 5.2% increase from the N$12.1 billion recorded in February.
After petroleum oils, motor vehicles (for commercial purposes) and inorganic chemical elements were the next most significant import commodities, accounting for 4.3% and 3.8% of total imports, respectively.
