Namibia’s Trade Deficit Smaller in June

By Xinhua 

August 2, 2023

New Container Terminal Namport Min

Namibian Ports Authority (Namport)

Namibia’s trade gap shrank to 1.4 billion Namibian dollars (about 94 million U.S. dollars) in June 2023, down from 2.8 billion Namibian dollars the previous month, according to the latest figures released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) Tuesday.

Between June 2022 and June 2023, Namibia recorded no trade surplus whereas trade deficits averaged at 2.1 billion Namibian dollars, according to the NSA.

“Namibia’s export earnings decreased by 5.9 percent while the import bill for the month under review decreased by 15.9 percent when compared to 12 billion Namibian dollars recorded during the earlier month,” NSA Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni said.

According to Shimuafeni, Namibia’s trade composition by partner showed that South Africa emerged as the largest market for both exports and imports.

“South Africa took first position as Namibia’s main export destination accounting for 20.5 percent of exports, Botswana came second with a share of 18.3 percent, and Zambia in third position with a share of 9.6 percent. China and the United Arab Emirates with shares of 7.8 percent and 7.3 percent occupied fourth and fifth positions, respectively,” he said.

The composition of the export basket for June 2023 mainly consisted of minerals such as precious stones (diamonds), non-monetary gold, uranium, and copper and articles of copper while fish remained the only non-mineral product within the top five products exported.

In terms of imports, the basket mainly consisted of petroleum oils, precious stones (diamonds), motor vehicles for the transport of goods, thermionic cathode valves and tubes, and civil engineering and contractors’ equipment.

For the month under review, reexports meanwhile increased 20.9 percent month on month and 3.7 percent year on year.