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Trade deficit increases by 59%

Trade deficit increases by 59%

The trade deficit increased by 59.3% in October as Namibia recorded a trade deficit of N$4.4 billion in October 2020, according to the latest Trade Statistics Bulletin released by the Namibian Statistics Agency.

Year to date, Namibia has averaged a monthly trade deficit of N$2.7 billion. The value of exports increased by 5.8% in October to N$8.3 billion and the value of imports increased by 25.1% in October to N$15.3 billion, leading to a wider trade deficit (from N$3.1 billion in September to N$7 billion in October.

During the month under review, the biggest drivers of exports were petroleum/oils/fuels (up 85.1%), diamonds (up 15.8%) and gold (up 12.1%).

Fish products were mainly sold to Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Diamonds were mainly sold to the US, Israel, Belgium, Botswana and the United Arab Emirates.

“Net exports will contribute negatively to 2021’s GDP calculation as we do not see a rebound in exports for the fourth quarter of 2021,” Simonis Storm Securities economist, Theo Klein said.

Meanwhile, products with the biggest share of imports during October were copper (up 1.7%), petroleum oils (up 84.1%), motor vehicles (up 159.8%) and civil engineering equipment (up 75.9%).

Imports were mainly sourced from South Africa (29.9%), Zambia (13.7%), Peru (8.9%), China (8.5%) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (7.7%).


About The Author

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