Africa-Press – Namibia. BETWEEN July and September, Namibia produced more goods and services by at least N$1,1 billion when compared to 2020, the Namibian Statistics Agency (NSA) says.
This brings the quarterly national output to N$45 billion, just slightly above N$43,9 billion that was produced in 2020. Statistician general Alex Shimuafeni yesterday said the expansion of economic activities in the third quarter of 2021 was observed in almost all sectors of the economy.
It was expected, as last year the third quarter was under the mercy of Covid-19 and anti-business friendly health restrictions. Analysts have said 2021’s restrictions were more reasonable.
Shimuafeni said double digit growth rates were registered in mining and quarrying (41,9%) and hotels and restaurants (19,5%). Other sectors that posted reasonable growth include health (7,3%); agriculture and forestry (5,9%); transport and storage (5,6%); and real estate and professional services (4,2%).
Despite these, decreased economic activities were observed in the secondary and some tertiary industries. The construction sector recorded the deepest contraction of 43,4%, followed by the financial services sector declining by 10,9%.
Likewise, the manufacturing sector declined by 2,6% and the wholesale and retail trade sector also registered a contraction of 0,7%. Over the years, the NSA has produced quarterly national output numbers using the production approach, and yesterday the bureau released the quarterly GDP estimates by expenditure approach for the first time.
The expenditure approach measures the final uses of the produced output as the sum of final consumption, gross capital formation, and exports less imports. Expenditure on real GDP increased by 2,4% in the quarter under review, mainly driven by the private final consumption.
In nominal terms, the private final consumption expenditure stood at N$34,9 billion during the period under review, up from N$31,3 billion recorded in 2020’s corresponding quarter, while the government’s final consumption expenditure stood at N$11,3 billion, down from N$12,1 billion in the third quarter of 2020.
In real terms, private consumption increased by 18% in the quarter under review, while government consumption grew by 2,3%. Investment stood at N$6 billion in the quarter under review, down from N$7,7 billion in the corresponding quarter of 2020.
In real terms, investment declined by 43,3% in the third quarter of 2021. Exports of goods and services stood at N$13,4 billion, while imports of goods and services stood at N$21,5 billion, resulting in a quarterly trade deficit of N$8,1 billion. The full data set on the quarter’s numbers is available on the NSA website.
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