Namibia’s economy grew by N$16.2 billion in 2024, bringing the country’s total nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to N$245.1 billion, up from N$228.9 billion recorded the previous year, according to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA).
However, real economic growth slowed to 3.7% in 2024, down from 4.4% in 2023, NSA Statistician-General and CEO Alex Shimuafeni revealed.
The slowdown is largely attributed to a weak performance in the primary industries, which contracted by 1.8% in real value added—a stark contrast to the 10.0% growth recorded in 2023.
“The weak performance in the primary industries is mainly due to a subdued demand for diamonds in the international market, as well as challenges faced in the fishing sector,” Shimuafeni stated.
The ‘other mining and quarrying’ subsector posted a marginal growth of 0.4% in 2024 due to reduced investment in oil and gas exploration, while the uranium subsector also saw a deceleration, he added.
Despite challenges in primary industries, secondary industries showed improvement, recording a growth rate of 3.0% in real value added, up from 2.4% in 2023. This was primarily driven by a rebound in the manufacturing and construction sectors, which posted growth rates of 2.8% and 6.4%, respectively, reversing their declines of 2.1% and 2.4% in 2023.
“The performance in the secondary industries is primarily driven by beverages, basic nonferrous metal, and government construction activities,” Shimuafeni said.
Meanwhile, tertiary industries maintained strong performance, expanding by 4.9% in 2024. NSA data showed notable growth across key sectors, including transport and storage (11.4%), wholesale and retail (9.1%), health (8.3%), financial and insurance services (5.9%), and public administration and defence (4.2%).
“The transport and storage sector continues to experience positive growth, supported by Namibia’s strategic role in regional cargo handling and transit, with the port services subsector expanding by 15.8%,” Shimuafeni noted.
On the demand side, final consumption expenditure surged by 10.8% in 2024, up from 3.9% in 2023, driven by heightened private household demand and increased government spending on employee compensation and goods and services.
However, gross fixed capital formation declined by 7.9% in 2024, reversing the significant 68.9% increase recorded in 2023. The drop was mainly due to reduced investment in oil and gas exploration as most operators transitioned to the appraisal stage.
“This performance mainly emanated from a decline in investment expenditure in the oil and gas exploration activities as the appraisal stage is underway for most of the operators,” Shimuafeni explained.
Furthermore, Namibia’s external balance of goods and services deteriorated, with the trade deficit widening from N$53.8 billion in 2023 to N$64.6 billion in 2024. The NSA attributed this to declining exports of diamonds, prepared and preserved fish, and cut and polished diamonds.
