Ongwediva
About 22 700 jobs were created in 2014 compared to the 19 500 in 2013, according to the NDP4 bi-annual progress report.
This surpassed the 18 000 jobs targeted to be generated per year.
Overall, Namibia registered slow economic growth of 4.5 percent at the end of 2014 compared to 5.1 percent in 2013. That is a 0.6 percent decline in growth compared to the previous year and well below the NDP4 target of 6.4 percent for 2014.
But with the targeted interventions already in place, such as the old age pension increase, an improvement is expected this year.
NDP4 has three goals which, if appropriately addressed, will position Namibia on a sustainable development trajectory that will serve the country well in addressing other equally pressing development challenges in future national development plans.
These include high sustained economic growth, employment creation and decreased income inequality.
The National Planning Commission public relations officer Fillemon Nangonya said Namibia has done quite well “considering what’s going on around the country”.
“Economic growth is not necessarily an internal matter, it is also driven by external factors, and we should be happy with that figure,” said Nangonya during this newspaper’s visit to the National Planning Commission stand at the Ongwediva Annual Trade Fair last week.
Nangonya said the economy is expected to grow by 4.9 in 2015.The annual growth targeted is six percent.
“Even if we are just below six percent economic growth, it is still a good achievement because Namibia’s economic growth average is above the SADC average, which stood at 4.8 percent in 2014.”
The results of the National Household Income and Expenditure Survey will be out in March 2016.