Trade deficit falls in September

An exponential growth in exports saw Namibia’s trade deficit decline marginally by 3.8% to N$2.5 billion in September compared to N$2.6 billion in August, figures released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) this week show.
Export earnings grew by 77.4% in September to N$5.5 billion up from N$3.1 billion recorded in August while year-on-year export growth was 34.1%.
Expenditure on imports increased by 40.4% from N$5.7 billion recorded in the previous month to N$8 billion in September. Year-on-year imports increased by 27%.
For the second month running, South Africa remains Namibia’s biggest export market with a 23.4% share of exports followed by Botswana (15.3%), Denmark (8%), Switzerland (7.8%) and Angola(7.1%). Diamonds dominated exports during September with a 22.5% share followed by ships, boats and floating structures (22.1%), ores (17.2%), fish (8.6%), and zinc (4.6%).
These products contributed 75% of total earnings compared to 56.5% in August.
Diamond exports were destined for Botswana, the local EPZs, the UK, Vietnam and the USA while exports of ships, boats and floating structures were mainly re-exports to Denmark, Norway and South Africa.
South Africa again dominated Namibia’s imports with 47.4% of the value of goods sourced in that country compared to 34.4% from Marshall Island, 4.3% from China, 3% from the local Export Processing Zones and 2.5% from Botswana. Major imports by value were ships, boats and floating structures, vehicles and parts, boilers and machinery as well as  diamonds, electrical machinery and other equipment.