Trade balance remains in a deficit amounting to N$2 billion
The country’s trade balance remained in a deficit amounting to N$2 billion, increasing from N$1.8 billion recorded in both March 2021 and April 2020, the statistics agency said Thursday.
Despite the increased deficit, the month of April 2021 saw total merchandise trade increase to N$18.7 billion, an increase of 0.8% and 43.3% compared to N$18.6 billion and N$13.1 billion recorded in March 2021 and April 2020, respectively.
The Namibia Statistics Agency’s Statistician-General, Alex Shimuafeni in the latest released trade figure said Namibia’s trade composition by partner illustrated that China continued as Namibia’s largest export market while South Africa maintained her first position as Namibia’s largest source of imports.
“The composition of the export basket mainly comprised of minerals such as copper, uranium, precious stones (diamonds), fish, non-monetary gold. As usual, fish remained the only non-mineral product among the top five exports. On the other hand, the import basket comprised mainly of vessels, copper, petroleum and petroleum products, motor vehicles and medicaments,” he added.
Shimufeni said the April 2021 trade figures indicated that re-exports fell by 3.1% month-on-month while a more significant increase of 49.9% was noted year-on-year.
“Copper had the largest share of all goods re-exported, accounting for 67.6% of total re-exports mainly destined to China, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Italy. Most of the copper re-exported originated from Zambia and D.R.C. Important to note is that copper appears to dominate both trade flows which is an indication of the important role the country plays as a major logistics hub for SADC,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shimuafeni urged all traders and clearing agents to continue providing all the required information when declaring their goods as this information is vital in the production of trade statistics.
