Windhoek – The Bank of Namibia, following its Monetary Policy Committee meeting on December 4 and 5, 2023, announced on Wednesday the decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 7.75 percent. This decision aims to preserve the peg between the Namibia Dollar and South African Rand and bolster the domestic economy.
According to Namibia Press Agency (NAMPA), the nation’s GDP growth for 2023 is estimated to have decreased to 3.9 percent from 7.6 percent in 2022, primarily due to slower growth in primary industries.
The country’s annual inflation rate, which averaged 6.0 percent in the first ten months of 2023, showed a slight increase from 5.9 percent in the same period of 2022. The rise in consumer price inflation was mainly influenced by higher costs in food, housing, and miscellaneous goods and services. Despite this, the average inflation rate is expected to gradually reduce to 5.9 percent in 2023 and further to 4.8 percent in 2024, from 6.1 percent in 2022.
Governor !Gawaxab also highlighted a slowdown in the growth of Private Sector Credit Extension (PSCE), which fell to 1.8 percent in October 2024, compared to 2.8 percent in August 2023. This decrease is attributed to reduced demand in other loans, advances, and overdrafts, along with net repayments in the mortgage category. Additionally, Namibia’s merchandise trade deficit slightly narrowed by 1.0 percent to N.dollars 31.7 billion during the first ten months of 2023, as export earnings grew faster than import payments. The stock of international reserves stood at N.dollars 49 billion as of November 30, 2023, a decrease from N.dollars 52.4 billion at the end of October 2023, predominantly due to higher net commercial bank outflows.