DUBBED the commodity of the month by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), Namibia imported cheese valued at N$14.6 million during the month of March, mostly sourced from South Africa.
Over the year, the lowest import value of N$11.0 million was observed during the month of February 2022 while the highest import value of N$18.5 million was recorded in October 2021.
This was last week announced by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) in their latest trade bulletin.
Namibia’s trade deficit improved to N$2.9 billion from the revised deficit of N$4.6 billion recorded in February 2022. However, it increased slightly from a deficit of N$2.8 billion witnessed in March 2021.
The statistics body also revealed that the month of March 2022 saw Namibia’s total merchandise trade amounting to N$15.0 billion, a decrease of 12.5 percent when compared to the level of N$17.1 billion recorded in February 2022 and an increase of 22.0 percent when compared to N$12.3 billion recorded in March 2021.
“Namibia’s trade composition by partner showed that South Africa emerged as Namibia’s largest market for both exports and imports. The composition of the export basket for the month of March 2022 was mainly comprised of minerals such as Precious stones (diamonds), Inorganic chemical elements, Copper blisters as well as Non-monetary gold. Fish continued to be the only non-mineral commodity within the top five products exported. On the other hand, the import basket was mainly comprised of Petroleum oils, Civil engineering and contractor’s equipment, Precious stones (diamonds) as well as Motor vehicles for the transportation of goods,” Statistician General at NSA, Alex Shimuafeni said.
For the month of March 2022, re-exports increased by 49.2 percent month-on-month and an increase of 67.7 percent year-on-year. The re-exports basket mainly consisted of Precious stones (diamonds), which accounted for 21.5 percent, Inorganic chemical elements with a share of 16.7 percent, followed by Copper blisters (14.8%), Petroleum oils (9.0%) and Civil engineering and contractors’ equipment (3.3%).
“Namibia’s trade by mode of transport revealed that in March 2022, vast of goods exported left the country by road, accounting for 40.0 percent of total exports, followed by air transport with 35.3 percent and sea transport with 24.7 percent. Similarly, the road transport was the most frequent mode of transport accounting for 58.4 percent of total imports followed by sea transport with a share of 34.5 percent and air transport with a share of 7.0 percent.
“In March 2022, Namibia exported most her goods to the rest of the world through the port of Walvis Bay with 31.0 percent, followed by Eros Airport and Wenela with 22.6 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively. While in terms of the imports, Namibia’s import mostly came in through the port of Walvis Bay at 34.6 percent, Wenela at 22.7 percent and Trans Kalahari at 19.0 percent,” Shimuafeni said.