The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has reported that Namibia’s trade balance recorded a huge deficit of N$4.4 billion in November 2025. According to NSA statistician general (SG) and chief executive officer Alex Shimuafeni, this was a deterioration compared to the previous month.
Namibia’s export revenue for November 2025 stood at N$10 billion, reflecting a decrease of 24.5% when compared to the export value recorded in October 2025.
The country’s expenditure on imports stood at N$14.4 billion, reflecting a decrease of 10.4% from N$16.1 billion recorded in the preceding month. The export and import positions translated into a trade deficit of N$4.4 billion, due to imports that outpaced exports.
“This development reflects a worsened trade balance when compared to the N$2.9 billion deficit recorded in October 2025. On a year-on-year basis a deficit of N$5.5 billion was recorded,” he said.
A recent analysis of Namibia’s trading partners showed that South Africa remained the country’s biggest market. South Africa emerged as Namibia’s largest trading partner for both exports and imports.
Shimuafeni noted that exports in November 2025 were largely driven by the mining sector.
“The export basket was mainly composed of commodities from the mining sector such as non-monetary gold, uranium and precious stones, particularly diamonds.
Fish and fruit and nuts were the only non-mineral products among the top five exports,” he said.
Shimuafeni further noted a significant drop in re-exports with notable decreases of 26.1% month-on-month and 33% year-on-year were observed for re-exports.
He noted that the re-export basket mainly comprised ores and concentrates of base metals, nickel ores and concentrates, diamonds, petroleum oils and fertilisers.
On imports, the SG said Namibia continued to rely heavily on key industrial and energy products.
“The main imports during the month included petroleum oils, motor vehicles for commercial purposes, nickel ores and concentrates, fertilisers, and ores and concentrates of base metals,” Shimuafeni said.
Looking at food trade, he noted that Namibia performed better in some areas. The country was a net exporter of food, recording a trade surplus of N$291 million.
However, the NSA noted that the country was a net importer of beverages, with a deficit amounting to N$251 million. The SG added that, rice was the commodity of the month.
“On the demand side, Namibia imported rice worth N$31 million, mainly from Thailand and South Africa. On the supply side, no rice was exported during the month under review,” he said.
