By:Justicia Shipena
The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) Namibia’s export and import bill for January 2023 resulted in the country’s trade deficit of N$2.9 billion, with exports standing at N$7.0 billion and imports at N$10.0 billion.
The NSA bulletin showed that during January 2023 exports decreased by 24.7% from its value of N$9.3 billion recorded in December 2022.
Additionally, the bulletin noted that exports increased by 10.2% from N$6.4 billion registered in January 2022.
Meanwhile, the import value decreased by 5.9% when compared to the value recorded in December 2022 and 4.5% when compared to its value of N$10.4 billion recorded in January 2022.
During the period under review, South Africa emerged as the country’s largest export destination, with a share of 27.9% of all goods exported followed by France with a share of 10.8%.
“Zambia, China, and the DRC formed part of Namibia’s top five export markets,” it said.
According to the statistics agency, the demand side saw South Africa maintaining its first position as the country’s largest source of imports, accounting for 35.9% of total imports into Namibia followed by Saudi Arabia in the second position with 17.3% of the market share.
“China, Malaysia, and India also formed part of Namibia’s top five import markets.”
NSA stated that the analysis of exports by commodities revealed that uranium had the largest share of 21.3% in Namibia’s total exports ahead of non-monetary gold with a share of 17.8%.
At the same time, fish accounted for 15.5% while in fourth and fifth position were copper ores and concentrates and diamonds accounting for 6.7% and 6.1%, respectively.
Regarding imports, NSA said petroleum oils were the highest valued commodity with a share of 32.4%of total imports, followed by motor vehicles for the transport of goods with a share of 4.5%.
“Motor cars for the transport of persons came third with a share of 3.2%. Furthermore, paper and paperboard accounted for 2.9% while sugars, molasses, and honey contributed 2.4% to Namibia’s total imports,” NSA said.
On regional composition, the bulletin pointed out that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) emerged as the largest export market during January 2023, contributing 33.5% of total exports.
In addition, the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) ranked second with a relative market share of 32.8% while the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC)- excluding SACU markets – accounted for 26.8% and 18.8%.
“COMESA market absorbed 18.0% of Namibia’s total exports. Subsequently, SAC emerged as the largest source of Namibia’s imports with a share of 37.0% of the total import bill followed by the OECD market with contributions of 15.7% while BRIC came third in the list with a percentage share of 13.9%.”
NSA further said the EU and Mercosur markets had a share of 9.9% and 2.2%, respectively.
The Southern Common Market—known as Mercosur—is one of the world’s leading economic blocs, its fifth-largest economy. Mercosur is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The bulletin also indicated that Namibia’s trade by mode of transport revealed that in January 2023, vast goods were exported via sea, accounting for 46.9% of total exports, followed by road transport with 26.6% and air transport with 26.5%.
“From the demand side, road transport was the most frequent mode of transport accounting for 47.9% of total imports followed by the sea with 47.9% and air with 4.1%.”
On the African Continental Free Trade Area, NSA showed the focus country was Niger for the month under review, and Namibia was the net exporter.