Namibia’s manufacturing sector continues to play an important role in driving economic growth, creating jobs and helping to reduce poverty. The sector includes meat and fish processing, food and beverage production and mineral beneficiation, which involves
smelting copper and zinc as well as cutting and polishing diamonds.
Manufacturing is highlighted as a national priority in the National Development Plan and the Growth at Home strategy, which promotes local value addition, stronger exports and increased domestic production.
These policies aim to create a supportive environment for industries to expand and compete globally.
The latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report, released by the statistician general and
Namibia Statistics Agency CEO Alex Shimuafeni, shows strong growth in the sector during the third quarter of 2025.
According to the report, the Manufacturing Index rose by 8.2 basis points, moving from 103.9 in the second quarter to 112.1 basis points in the third quarter.
“This marks a quarterly increase of 7.9%. The rise was mainly driven by higher prices in
fish processing on shore, the manufacture of other food products, diamond cutting and polishing, as well as the production of non-alcoholic beverages,” he said.
Year-on-year, the Manufacturing Index increased by 7.8%, climbing from 104.0 basis points in the third quarter of 2024 to 112.1 basis points in the same quarter of 2025.
Shimuafeni noted that fish processing onshore had the biggest influence on the annual increase, followed by the manufacturing of other food products, meat processing, the production of non-alcoholic beverages and the manufacture of grain mill products.
“In this report, we explore the overall performance of the PPI for Q3 of 2025, including sector- specific trends for mining and quarrying; manufacturing, electricity generation; transmission and distribution, and water collection, treatment and supply. “Each section outlines both quarterly and annual price changes, shedding further light on the underlying dynamics and the factors driving these shifts. For instance, significant price increases in the mining and quarrying sector, as well as the decline experienced in the electricity generation, transmission and distribution sector, are highlighted as key observations in the current report,” he said
He added that, in the overall PPI (Q1 2020-Q3 2025), the PPI for the third quarter of 2025 (Q3 2025) recorded growth both on a quarterly basis and year-on-year of 12.0% and 10.4%, respectively.
The growth was mainly driven by increases in prices of products from the mining and quarrying sector and the manufacturing sector, both on a quarterly and annual basis.