Namibia’s economic performance continues an upward trend, recording a positive growth of 5.3% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to a decline of 4.9% registered in the corresponding period last year, the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) announced on Thursday
In nominal terms, the size of the economy increased by N$3 billion to N$46 billion in the quarter under review relative to the N$43 billion posted in the same quarter of 2021
The last time the economy recorded positive economic growth for four consecutive quarters was between Q4 of 2017 to Q3 of 2018.
Key drivers to the GDP growth, which saw an improved performance across major sectors of the economy, were largely driven by the resurgent ‘Mining and quarrying’ sector that registered a robust growth of 23.5%.
NSA added that similar positive observations were noticeable in the ‘Manufacturing’ (7.5%), ‘Transport and storage’ (6.3%) and ‘Financial services’ (5.1%).”
Meanwhile, the value added for the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector for the first quarter of 2022 was estimated at N$3.3 billion in nominal terms (7.2% of GDP).
According to the NSA’s Statistician-General & Ceo Alex Shimuafeni In real terms the sector recorded an increase of 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2022 mainly due the Forestry, Livestock and Crop sub sectors that increased by 7.5%, 5.7%, and 5.5%, respectively.
On the other hand, the Fishing sub sector recorded a decline of 2.05% in real value added.
Furthermore, Namibia’s export earnings from commodities of ‘Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing’ sector for the first quarter of 2022 amounted to N$4 billion whereas the import bill stood at N$1.1 billion.
“The Fisheries products accounted for the highest foreign earnings at N$3.1 billion followed by the agriculture commodities that brought income of N$564.8 million, However, the fishing, forestry and crop subsectors declined, with the fishing sub-sector moving into a negative trajectory during the quarter under review,” said Shimuafeni.
In terms of import, agriculture commodities topped the list with an import bill of N$839.6 million during the first quarter of 2022.
“For the period under review, the food price inflation was observed to be increasing at a faster pace than other commodities in the CPI Basket,” he said.
This comes as the agriculture, forestry and fishing’ sector for Q1 of 2022 recorded a growth of 1.6% in real value added compared to a decline of 0.6% posted in Q1 of 2021.
“The improvement in the sector was mainly due to the increase in the livestock subsector, from -6.1 percent in Q1 of 2021 to 5.7 percent recorded for the quarter under review. The robust performance in the livestock sub-sector is attributed to the growth in cattle marketed from export approved abattoirs and butchers as well as an increase in the export of live cattle and small stock,” stated the NSA.
