STAFF WRITER
THE Namibian economy grew by N$4 billion in the last three months.
According to the latest Gross Domestic Product(GDP) figures released by the Namibia Statistics Agency(NSA) the economy’s size reached N$62.4 billion in nominal terms.
This reflects an expansion of N$4 billion compared to N$58.5 billion in the same period of 2024.
“In real terms, the domestic economy grew by 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2025, though this was a slight slowdown compared to the 4.8 percent growth observed in the same quarter of 2024.
“The growth was primarily driven by the tertiary industries, which registered 5.1 percent increase in real value added during the first quarter of 2025. This was an improvement after 4.8 percent growth recorded in the same period in 2024. Key contributors to
tertiary industries include sectors like Health (11.4%), Wholesale and Retail Trade (6.5%), and Financial Services Activities (6.0%),” Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni said.
Shimuafeni said the secondary industries experienced slower growth of 0.7 percent in real value added, compared to 0.9 percent increase recorded in the first quarter of 2024.
“ The performance is primarily due to the manufacturing sector, which registered a decline of 1.7 percent compared to 0.9 percent decrease witnessed in the same quarter of 2024. On the other hand, economic activities slowed in primary industries registering a decline of 3.1 percent in real value added, compared to 5.9 percent increase recorded in the first
quarter of 2024,” he said.
He said the poor performance is attributed to the ‘Agriculture and forestry’ and ‘Fishing and Fish Processing on board’ sectors, that registered declines of 20.1 percent and 8.7 percent in real value added, respectively.
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