Namibia’s economic activities continued to expand, registering a positive growth of 5.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2022, when compared to 5.5 per cent growth recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021.

This means the size of the economy expanded to N.dollars 48.6 billion up by N.dollars 5.4 billion when compared to the N.dollars 43.2 billion posted in the corresponding quarter in 2021, the Namibia Statistics Agency Chief Executive Officer Alex Shimwafeni has revealed.

Shimwafeni who launched the Second Quarter 2022 report on Wednesday, attributed the growth to the positive performance of the mining industry and financial sector.

“The growth mainly emanated from the primary industries that recorded an increase of 13.7 per cent compared to a marginal increase of zero per cent recorded during the same quarter of 2021,” said Shimwafeni.

This performance in the industries was driven by the mining and quarrying sector which registered a growth in real value added of 29.4 per cent during the quarter under review compared to a decline of 1.8 per cent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2021.

The increase is mainly attributed to the diamond mining subsector which recorded an increase of 53.7 per cent during the quarter under review, while the improved performance of the financial services sector increased by 16 per cent and contributed 1.1 percentage points to the overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate.

The increase is mainly attributed to the ‘Insurance and others’ subsector which recorded an accelerated growth of 23.4 per cent relative to the growth of 3.2 per cent measured in the corresponding quarter of 2021, said Shimwafeni.

The sectors that recorded double-digit growth rates are; ‘Mining and quarrying’ at 29.4 per cent, Financial Services, at 16.0, Transport and storage at 10.5 and Health at 10,0 per cent.

While the construction and public administration and defence sectors registered declines of 25.3 and 2.1 per cent, respectively.

However, Shimwafeni indicated the nominal value for exports of goods and services stood at N. dollars16.3 billion, whilst imports of goods and services expanded to N.dollars 25.5 billion resulting in a deterioration of the external balance of goods and services.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency