Namibia's growth loses steam

The Namibian economy slowed in real terms in 2025, despite a notable increase in nominal income of N$19.7 billion, the National Accounts released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) indicate.

When accounting for price adjustments, the domestic economy slowed to real growth of 1.7% in 2025, compared to 3.8% recorded in 2024.

"The slow performance is attributed to the primary industries, which recorded a decline of 7.2% in real value added compared to a decline of 3.2% noted in the corresponding period of 2024," the NSA said.

The main drivers were the mining and quarrying and agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors, which declined by 9.4% and 3.3%, respectively.

Within agriculture, the livestock farming subsector contracted by 21.7%, while diamond mining declined by 19.4%, dragging down the broader mining sector.

The secondary industries registered slower growth of 2.1% in real value added, down from 3.6% in 2024.

"This performance is ascribed to the manufacturing sector, which recorded a decline of 2.9% compared to growth of 4% recorded in 2024," the NSA said.

The tertiary industries were the standout performers, posting growth of 4.2%. Gains were recorded across information and communication (10.7%), wholesale and retail (7.8%), health (6.6%), education (4.7%), and public administration and defence (3.8%), with the ICT sector's performance driven primarily by rising mobile and data usage.

The tertiary industries remained the main contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP), accounting for 55%, the NSA said. "This is followed by the primary industries that contributed 21% to GDP, while the secondary industries contributed 15% to GDP.

In real terms, the primary industries in 2025 recorded a negative growth of 7.2% relative to a decline of 3.2%

posted in 2024. Additionally, the secondary industries grew by 2.1% in 2025, compared to 3.6% recorded in 2024, the NSA said.