Trade deficit declines in June

The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) made history this week by publishing monthly trade figures for the first time when it released trade figures for the month of May and June 2013 as opposed to the traditional quarterly figures in previous years.
According to the figures released Thursday, Namibia’s total exports in June stood at N$4.1 billion while imports came in at N$4.3 billion resulting in a N$200 million trade deficit compared to N$1.2 billion the previous month, representing a decline of 87%.
Year on year, the decrease in the deficit was even more pronounced at 92%. In June 2012, the trade deficit was N$2 billion.
The figures from the NSA also showed that expenditure on imports declined by 18.9% compared to the previous month and by 21.7 % year-on-year. Export earnings on the other hand, showed a slight increase of 1% in June 2013 compared to the previous month, and by 17.6% in the corresponding month of the preceding year.
The NSA said a decrease in imports contributed to the deficit narrowing in June 2013 compared to the previous month.
Namibia’s major exports for the month of June were precious stones (diamonds), fish, ores and vehicles. Major imports included vehicles, precious stones (diamonds), boilers machinery and electrical machinery.
Botswana was Namibia’s top export destination in the month of June 2013 on account of the relocation of the DeBeers diamond sorting facility to that country from London. Other top export destinations included South Africa, Switzerland, Angola and the Export Processing Zone. These five destinations accounted for 67.5% of Namibia’s exports during the month under review.
The figures from NSA also show that Namibia continues to import most of its goods from South Africa followed by imports from the Export Processing Zone, Botswana, China and United Arab Emirates. These five countries accounted for 89% of Namibia’s imports during the month under review.