Namibian economy contracts by 0.8 pct in 2017: statistics office

WINDHOEK, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The Namibian economy contracted by 0.8 percent in 2017, compared to a growth of 0.7 percent recorded in 2016, the Namibia Statistics Agency said on Thursday.

The main drivers behind the decline in GDP growth were the Secondary and Tertiary industries. The Secondary industries contracted by 6.7 percent in real value added compared to a decline of 6.6 percent in 2016.

The contraction in the secondary industries was due to the Construction sector that recorded a decline in real value added of 25.6 percent compared to a previous contraction of 26.3 percent in 2016.

The statistics office said contraction could have been worse, had it not been for the robust performance of the Primary industries that recorded double-digit growth of 10.7 percent in real value added in 2017 from a decline of 1.5 percent in 2016.

The strong performance in the Primary industries is attributed to Agriculture and forestry sector that recorded a growth of 12.7 percent in real value added for 2017.

This performance comes on the backdrop of good rainfall resulting in a bumper harvest and recovering livestock prices following years of drought.

In terms of Mining and quarrying sector, increase in production of major export commodities such as diamonds, uranium, zinc and gold resulted in a strong performance of 12.8 percent in real value added in 2017.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)