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Merchandise trade strengthens in June, but trade balance remains in a deficit

Merchandise trade strengthens in June, but trade balance remains in a deficit

Namibia’s trade balance remained in a deficit amounting to N$987 million, while total merchandise trade strengthened to N$18.2 billion in June.

This is according to the June 2021 trade statistics availed by the Namibia Statistics Agency. The June deficit is reduced in comparison to the deficits of N$3.2 billion recorded in May 2021 and N$126 million in June 2020.

The merchandise trade increased by 29.6% when compared to the level of N$14.1 billion in May 2021, and by 19.6% compared to the N$15.3 billion recorded in June last year.

Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni noted that the country’s trade composition by partner illustrated that China emerged as Namibia’s largest export market, while South Africa was the main import market.

The composition of the export basket mainly comprised of minerals such as uranium, copper, precious stones (diamonds), non-monetary gold and fish.

“As usual, fish remained the only non-mineral product among the top five exports. On the other hand, the import basket comprised mainly of copper, coper ores, petroleum oils, precious stones (diamonds) and ores of precious metals,” Shimuafeni said.

The June trade figures indicate that re-exports gained strength, raising by 26.9% month-on-month but saw a decline of 17.7% year-on-year.

“Like in the past months, copper had the largest share of all goods re-exported, accounting for 66.2% of total re-exports mainly destined to Netherlands, China, and Belgium. Most of the re-exported copper originated from Zambia and D.R.C. Important to note is that copper appears as the most dominant commodity on both trade flows indicating the vital role the country plays as a major logistics hub for SADC,” Shimuafeni said.

Walvis Bay was the main border post for both imports and exports of goods trade by Namibia.


 

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Donald Matthys

Donald Matthys has been part of the media fraternity since 2015. He has been working at the Namibia Economist for the past three years mainly covering business, tourism and agriculture. Donald occasionally refers to himself as a theatre maker and has staged two theatre plays so far. Follow him on twitter at @zuleitmatthys