Annual inflation up 7% in November
The annual inflation rate in November 2022 increased by 7% compared to 4.1% recorded in November 2021, the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) economic statistics revealed on Thursday.
Transport and food and non-alcoholic beverages components continued to be the main contributors to the annual inflation rate with a contribution of 2.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points, respectively, the agency said.
“On a monthly basis, the inflation rate augmented by 0.5 percent compared to 0.2 percent recorded a month earlier,” NSA Statistician-General, Alex Shimuafeni said in a statement, attributing the percentage growth to transport and clothing and footwear.
Food inflation continued to increase at a faster pace than other items in the consumer price index basket, food inflation increased by 8.9% compared to 5.7 % recorded in the corresponding period of 2021.
The agency meanwhile also released the 3rd quarter Agriculture Bulletin which revealed that the value added for agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector for the Q3 of 2022 was estimated at N$3.2 billion in nominal terms (6.4% of GDP).
In real terms, the sector declined to 8.8 percent which is attributed to the decline in subsectors of livestock farming and fishing that decelerated by 18.9% and 3.1% in real value-added, respectively.
Namibia’s export earnings from commodities of the ‘agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector amounted to N$3.7 billion whereas the import bill stood at N$1.3 billion for the third quarter of 2022.
The fisheries products accounted for the highest foreign earnings at N$2.7 billion followed by the agriculture commodities that brought income of N$ 606 million. In terms of imports, agriculture commodities topped the list with an import bill of N$747.1 million during the third quarter of 2022.
