WINDHOEK, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's trade balance stood at a deficit of 4.9 billion Namibia dollars (about 320 million U.S. dollars) in August, surpassing the 3.7 billion Namibia dollars recorded in July and the 4.1 billion Namibia dollars in August 2022, marking the largest deficit year on year, according to the latest figures released by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA).
Namibia's export earnings decreased 10.2 percent, falling from 8.2 billion Namibia dollars in the previous month to 7.4 billion Namibia dollars in August, NSA Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni said Thursday.
"When compared to August 2022, exports decreased by 6.3 percent from 7.9 billion Namibia dollars, the imports stood at 12.3 billion Namibia dollars while the import bill for the month under review increased by 3 percent month-on-month and 2.2 percent year-on-year," he noted.
Shimuafeni said that South Africa emerged as Namibia's largest market for both exports and imports.
"The composition of the export basket for the month of August 2023 mainly consisted of minerals such as precious stones (diamonds), non-monetary gold, copper and articles of copper, and petroleum oils, while fish remained the only non-mineral product within the top five products exported," he said.
Regarding imports, the basket mainly consisted of petroleum oils, motor vehicles for the transport of goods, vessels, rotating electric plant and parts, and civil engineering and contractors' equipment, he added. ■
