Africa-Press – Namibia. President Hage Geingob says the novel coronavirus has changed the government’s “well laid-out plans” of economic recovery.
In his New Year message, Geingob said plans to recover the slumping economy were under way. He said these measures were aimed at ensuring fiscal sustainability and in turn implemented the biggest expenditure cuts since independence. “As a consequence of a slowing economy, a number of big and small businesses were negatively affected. Having staved off this testing period, we were anticipating the beginning of a phase of rebuilding in 2020. Regrettably, the arrival of an uninvited and unwelcome guest, Covid-19, changed the well-laid-out plans of recovery,” the president said.“Subsequently, jobs have been lost; a number of businesses have reduced their capacities or have closed down completely and this has led to tremendous suffering for our people, at a social, economic and psychological level,” Geingob added.He noted that the Bank of Namibia has estimated an annualised real GDP contraction of 7,3%, while the deficit is estimated to balloon to beyond 10% of GDP. Geingob added: “This level of economic recession is like nothing we have faced as a nation since independence in 1990. It is unprecedented. Covid-19 has had a seismic effect, not only on our local economy, but on the global economy as a whole.”
