By Iipumbu Sakaria
THE purpose of today’s article is to inform and update the nation about the latest economic statistics released by the Namibia Statistics Agency last week.
These are the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates for the first quarter of 2014, the May 2014 Consumer Price Index and the April 2014 Trade Statistics.
The Namibian economy is estimated to have recorded a relatively slow growth rate of 1.6 percent during the first quarter of 2014.
Although it is better than the decline of 3.8 percent recorded during the corresponding quarter of the previous year, it is worrying that the growth rate falls way short of the growth targets of NDP4.
The growth during the first quarter of the year was mainly driven by robust performances of the construction, wholesale, trade and transport and communication sectors.
The strong performance of the construction sector that is estimated to have expanded by 22.0 percent during the period under review is mainly attributed to construction works by the general government sector that is estimated to have increased by 29.4 percent.
The consumer price index shows that annual rate of inflation quickened to 6.1 percent during the month of May 2014, from 5.9 percent during the previous month and 5.8 percent during the same month of the previous year.
The faster pace of consumer prices originated mainly from higher monthly price increases recorded in the milk, cheese and eggs subcategory of the food and non-alcoholic beverages component.
While the annual inflation rate has accelerated during the month of May 2014, generalised inflation nevertheless remains well contained and does not pose an immediate threat to the outlook for the economy.
With regard to the external sector, the deficit trade in goods balance narrowed to N$2.2 billion during April 2014 from N$4.1 billion recorded one month earlier. It is however, more than double the size of the N$1.0 billion recorded during the same month of the previous year.
As noted in earlier correspondence the persistent deficit on the trade balance is a cause for concern as it mainly reflects the low levels of exports when compared to our appetite for imports, in particular consumables.
To increase our overall growth rate to more sustainable levels in line with what is expected under NDP4, it is imperative that we explore measures and strategies to enhance the export capacity of the economy.
As usual, with the release of these economic statistics we are more than certain that the NSA continues to play its rightful role in providing statistics that are needed for relevant evidence-based planning. Get your own soft copy at www.nsa.org.na.
This column will appear on a bi-monthly basis and aims to bring the NSA and statistics closer to the people
• Iipumbu Sakaria is the Deputy Director for Strategic Communications at the NSA