Second quarter stats shows first tentative growth after five declining quarters
Noting that the rebound of the economy stems from a very low base, the Statistician General, Mr Alex Shimuafeni conveyed the good news that the economy grew for the first time on a quarterly basis since the last quarter of 2019.
Shimuafeni said the economy grew by 1.6% from April to June 2021, still far below the 4.7% of the fourth quarter of 2019. This translates to five back to back quarters of a declining economy.
In the comparable quarter, second quarter of last year, the economy declined by a massive 11.6%.
In nominal terms, Gross Domestic Product came to N$43.3 billion in the second quarter of this year, compared to the N$42.8 billion posted for last year’s second quarter. On an annual q/q basis, the economy thus grew by N$500 million.
The second quarter improvement stems mostly from the services sector where Hotels and Restaurants made a solid 34.3% comeback after falling off the cliff in 2020.
Wholesale and Retail also grew by a respectable 17.3% and Admin and Support Services by 15.6% after shedding more than a quarter of its value in the second quarter of 2020.
These turnaround scenarios were however not observed in the primary and secondary sectors. The only exception is Fishing which posted quarterly growth of nearly 14%, as opposed to losing more than 16% last year.
Agriculture and Forestry recorded a decline of 6.9% in real value added during the second quarter of 2021 with Livestock registering the biggest contraction of nearly 22%.
Both Mining and Manufacturing continued to post declines but at a slower rate than a year ago.
Information and Communication continued its positive trend recording growth of 7.9% in the second quarter of 2021, but considerably slower than the 18% growth of 2020 when the first lockdowns forced thousands of people to go digital.
The full quarterly reports can be viewed at www.nsa.org.na
