Trade and Regional Integration in Namibia: FY2019/20

Namibian exports have grown slower than imports during the period from 2015 to 2018. This has led to a deterioration of gross official reserves due to the persistent and widening merchandise trade deficit. In addition, the widening trade deficit has deteriorated Namibia’s current account balance. Namibia is still heavily dependent on agricultural and raw commodity which are also amongst its top-traded goods to the Southern African Development Community (SADC). However, Namibia is highly integrated in SADC but its trade is unbalanced due to the significant trade deficit in the region. This suggests that there is significant room to increase and diversify Namibia’s exports to SADC.