Economy expected to grow by 1.4% in 2021 – Bank of Namibia outlook
The domestic economy growth is projected to increase by 1.4 % and 3.4% in 2021 and 2022 respectively, from a contraction of 8% in 2020, according to the country’s central bank.
These improvements are mainly on account of base effects, better growth prospects in the mining industry and recovery for some industries in the tertiary sector, the Bank of Namibia said in their Economic Outlook for August 2021.
The latest estimate of 1.4% growth in 2021 represents a downward revision from the 2.7% published in the February 2021 Economic Outlook update, the Bank said.
“A significant downward revision was made on growth for diamond mining based on revised output targets by the industry. Other major downward revisions to growth between February 2021 and August 2021 were made for all secondary industries,” the Bank said.
“In general, the revised lower economic growth is largely attributed to new variants of the coronavirus, vaccination hesitancy, and slow vaccination rates in Namibia that were not expected during the February 2021 update,” they concluded.
