Stock of foreign reserves at N$52.9 billion

Sufficient to cover imports for 5.5 months
Namibia's import bill averaged N$10.5 billion in the first half of 2023.
Phillepus Uusiku
  • 9 Months Ago - 2023-08-04 00:00:00
The increase in the stock of international reserves from N$ N$49.6 billion in May to N$52.9 billion in June is sufficient to cover imports for 5.5 months, the Bank of Namibia (BoN) said.
The rise was on account of diamond sales proceeds, Customer Foreign Currency (CFC) placements as well as net commercial bank inflows as a result of portfolio investment inflows, the central bank pointed out.
According to the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA), Namibia’s import bill averaged N$10.5 billion in the (1H) first half of 2023 (January to June).
In June, the value of imports stood at N$10.1 billion, compared to N$12 billion recorded in the previous month.
Petroleum oils topped the list of imported goods for June 2023, with a share of 10.1%of total import value. In second and third position were diamonds and motor vehicles for the transport of goods with shares of 5.3% and 4.9%, respectively, NSA said.
Meanwhile, Namibia’s export earnings averaged N$8.6 billion in the first half of 2023. In June, goods worth N$8.7 billion were exported to international markets.
The central bank projects real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to moderate downwards to 3.0% in 2023, from 4.2% in 2022.
Risks to the domestic economy include high costs of key import items that are likely to remain for the entire forecast period, BoN’s economic outlook reads.
The Namibia economy grew by 5% during the first quarter of 2023, a slow growth when compared to a growth of 7.3% posted in the corresponding quarter of 2022. –[email protected]