Namibia’s economy is set to shrink by 1.5 per cent in 2019 after contracting 0.1 per cent in the previous year, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein has said.
The minister said in Windhoek that the drop was due to a broad slowdown triggered by severe drought, weak investment and falling consumer demand.
The economy would gradually recover to expand by around 0.8 per cent in 2020 and 1.3 per cent by 2021, the finance minister said in his mid-term budget review speech ahead of an election in Nivember.
Schlettwein added that gross debt was seen remaining steady at just less than 50 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
