For the month of December 2022, Namibia imported sanitary pads worth N$4.5 million mostly sourced from South Africa and Spain whereas on the export side, Namibia exported Sanitary pads worth N$0.1 million,” a trade bulletin released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) has revealed.
Over the entire period (December 2021 to December 2022), the import value of Sanitary pads monthly averaged at N$7.5 million with the largest value of N$14.5 million recorded in July 2022 and the lowest value of N$ 4.0 million recorded in October 2022.
“On the export side, the country exported Sanitary pads worth N$0.1 million which were mostly destined to Zambia during the month of December 2022,” the Agency said.
During the month of December 2022, the country’s trade balance remained in a deficit though it improved by a notable 59.5 percent (month – on – month) and 49.9 percent (year – on – year) from N$2.8 billion recorded in November 2022 and N$2.3 billion observed in December 2021, respectively.
Namibia’s trade composition by partner showed that Botswana emerged as Namibia’s largest market for exports whereas South Africa maintained her position as the main source of imports. The composition of the export basket for the month of December 2022 mainly comprised of minerals such as Precious stones (diamonds), Uranium and Non-monetary gold. Fish and ‘Fruits and nuts’ were the only non-mineral commodities within the top five products exported. On the other hand, the import basket mainly comprised of Petroleum oils, Precious stones (diamonds), Motor vehicles for the transportation of goods, Fertilizers, and Telecommunications equipment.
For the month of December 2022, re-exports decreased by 23.5 percent month-on-month and increased by 27.3 percent year-on-year. The re-exports basket mainly comprised of Precious stones (diamonds), Petroleum oils and Printed matter.
In terms of regional composition, SACU emerged as the largest export market during the month of December 2022, contributing 39.9 percent of total exports. OECD ranked second with a relative market share of 21.8 percent while BRIC and the EU markets accounted for 19.2 percent and 15.8 percent, respectively. SADC excl SACU market absorbed 13.7 percent of Namibia’s total exports.
Subsequently, SACU emerged as the largest source of Namibia’s imports with a share of 42.0 percent of the total import bill followed by the OECD market with contributions of 13.1 percent while BRIC came third in the list with a percentage share of 11.8 percent. The EU and COMESA markets had a share of 6.1 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.
Namibia’s trade by mode of transport revealed that in December 2022, vast of goods were exported via Air, accounting for 39.8 percent of total exports, followed by Road transport with 31.0 percent and Sea transport with 29.2 percent. From the demand side, Road transport was the most frequent mode of transport accounting for 52.5 percent of total imports followed by Sea with 41.3 percent and Air with 6.2 percent.