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Namibia's economy slows down in 2014

Xinhua, April 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Namibia's GDP growth decelerated to 4.5 percent in 2014 compared to 5.1 percent the previous year, preliminary economic data released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) on Thursday shows.

The NSA attributed the slow growth mainly to the secondary and tertiary industries that registered growth of 4.7 percent and 6.3 percent compared to 8.4 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.

The slow growth in the secondary industries was due to the construction and manufacturing sectors that recorded growth rates of 14.6 percent and 0.5 percent compared to 30.2 percent and 2.9 percent in real value added during 2013.

Tertiary industries also slowed down to 6.3 percent compared to 7.2 percent in 2013.

Wholesale and retail trade, transport and communication and financial intermediation sectors were the major contributors to the slower growth in the tertiary industries recording growths of 8.6 percent, percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.

The primary industries continue to struggle in 2014 recording a decline of 2.3 percent, although better than in the preceding year.

The agriculture sector recovered from the drought of 2013 to record a growth of 6.5 percent while the livestock and crop farming subsectors recorded growths of 8 percent and 4.8 percent in real value added in 2014, respectively.

The mining and quarrying sector is estimated to have registered a decline of 4.6 percent in 2014 compared to an increase of 1.1 percent recorded in the preceding year.

The poor performance recorded in the mining sector was as a result of uranium and other mining and quarrying that recorded declines in real value added of 9.9 percent and 42.7 percent, respectively.

Stock broking firm, IJG expressed surprise at the lower than expected GDP growth in 2014.

"These figures are far lower than our estimated growth of 6.9 percent, and appear somewhat different to the reality that can be seen on the street, in the various high frequency indicators monitored, company results and from the expansive policy position pursued by Government and the Central Bank.

"However, at the current point in time the accounts merely reflect preliminary data, which data is likely to be updated in the final version of the accounts," the company said in a commentary.

Tertiary industries remain the top contributor to GDP with a share of 56 percent while the primary and secondary industries contributed 18.6 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively. Endi