The collection, production and dissemination of statistics will continue. We are all certain that nothing remains constant and that change is the only constant. An example of this is our population. If we look at the figure from 1991 the population of Namibia was approximately 1.4 million. By the year 2001 this figure rose to about 1.8 million and in 2011 Namibia’s population stood at 2.1 million.
As we speak today in 2016, our country’s population is projected to be around 2.3 million. This shows that statistics are not static at all. They change with time.
This year we shall continue with providing our regular economic statistics to the nation. Our economic statistics include the monthly inflation figures as well as sectoral reports. Added to this are the quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) updates, as well as the quarterly trade statistics. We shall also be releasing the annual trade statistics, the Informal Cross Border Trade Survey Report as well as the preliminary and annual national accounts. Exact dates of release of publication are available on our website under the Advance Release Calendar.
For those that might not be too familiar with economic statistics, the inflation figures deal with the change in the cost of living. For example, for the month of January 2016, inflation rose to 5.3 percent on an annual basis. Our GDP is an indication of how our economy performed. It breaks down the economy into sectors such as the primary, secondry and tertiary sectors. It then provides a snapshot of how those sectors performed. The annual trade statistics to be released in March will give an analysis on Namibia’s exports and imports as per 2015. It will look at commodities traded, trading partner countries as well as mode of transport used to import and export those goods. Lastly on the economic front, we shall also release the Informal Cross Border Trade Report. This report provides information on the goods traded informally across our borders. This survey was conducted from September 2015.
Of course, most of the nation is aware of the Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES) that started last year April. This survey is coming to an end in March 2016 and it is just appropriate that we thank all Namibians that took part in the survey and welcomed our field workers into their homes. Without you we would have never been able to collect this type of information. It will run to the end of March 2016, so some of you might still be visited by our staff until then. Please open your doors to them and assist us in finalizing that last stretch.
This NHIES survey is updating income and expenditure data of 2009/10. As indicated at the beginning of this article, statistics change. The situation in 2009/10 is certainly different than the situation in 2015/16. Hence there is and always will be a need to update information. The results of this survey are expected to come out in the middle of August 2016. I am certain that many stakeholders are looking forward to this information.
All in all, statistics delivery will continue. There is no other alternative if we want to be aware of what is going on around us. It is always better to know than not to know. Some might argue, and rightly so, that statistics production, collection and dissemination is expensive but the cost of not having them is even more expensive.
• Iipumbu Sakaria is the Deputy Director for Strategic Communications at the NSA