| Economy - overview | The economy is heavily dependent on the extraction and processing of minerals for export. Mining accounts for 20% of GDP. Rich alluvial diamond deposits make Namibia a primary source for gem-quality diamonds. Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of nonfuel minerals in Africa, the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium, and the producer of large quantities of lead, zinc, tin, silver, and tungsten. The mining sector employs only about 3% of the population while about half of the population depends on subsistence agriculture for its livelihood. Namibia normally imports about 50% of its cereal requirements; in drought years food shortages are a major problem in rural areas. A high per capita GDP, relative to the region, hides the world's worst inequality of income distribution. The Namibian economy is closely linked to South Africa with the Namibian dollar pegged one-to-one to the South African rand. Privatization of several enterprises in coming years may stimulate long-run foreign investment. Increased fish production and mining of zinc, copper, uranium, and silver spurred growth in 2003-06. |
|
| GDP | 3.7% (2006) |
|
| GDP - real growth rate | 4.6% (2006 est.) |
|
| GDP - composition by sector | agriculture: 11.8%
industry: 30.2%
services: 58.1% (2006 est.) |
|
| Population below poverty line | the UNDP's 2005 Human Development Report indicated that 34.9% of the population live on $1 per day and 55.8% live on $2 per day |
|
Household income or consumption
by percentage share | lowest 10%: 0.5%
highest 10%: 64.5% |
|
Distribution of family income
- Gini index | 70.7 (2003) |
|
| Labor force | 653,000 (2006 est.) |
|
| Labor force - by occupation | agriculture: 47%
industry: 20%
services: 33% (1999 est.) |
|
| Unemployment rate | 5.3% (2006 est.) |
|
| Budget | revenues: $2.233 billion
expenditures: $2.214 billion; including capital expenditures of $NA (2006 est.) |
|
| Industries | meatpacking, fish processing, dairy products; mining (diamonds, lead, zinc, tin, silver, tungsten, uranium, copper) |
|
| Industrial production growth rate | NA% |
|
Electricity -
production | 1.397 billion kWh (2004) |
|
Electricity -
production by source | NA |
|
Electricity -
consumption | 2.819 billion kWh (2004) |
|
Electricity -
exports | 80 million kWh (2004) |
|
Electricity -
imports | 1.6 billion kWh; note - electricity supplied by South Africa (2004) |
|
| Oil - production | 0 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
|
| Oil - consumption | 18,000 bbl/day (2004 est.) |
|
| Oil - exports | NA bbl/day |
|
| Oil - imports | 12,770 bbl/day (2003) |
|
| Oil - proved reserves | 0 bbl (1 January 2002) |
|
| Agriculture - products | millet, sorghum, peanuts, grapes; livestock; fish |
|
| Exports | $2.321 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
|
| Exports - commodities | diamonds, copper, gold, zinc, lead, uranium; cattle, processed fish, karakul skins |
|
| Exports - partners | South Africa 33.4%, US 4% (2004) |
|
| Imports | $2.456 billion f.o.b. (2006 est.) |
|
| Imports - commodities | foodstuffs; petroleum products and fuel, machinery and equipment, chemicals |
|
| Imports - partners | South Africa 85.2%, US (2004) |
|
| Debt - external | $887 million (2006 est.) |
|
| Economic aid - recipient | ODA, $160 million (2000 est.) |
|
| Currency code | NAD; ZAR |
|
| Exchange rates | Namibian dollars per US dollar - 6.7649 (2006), 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004), 7.5648 (2003), 10.5407 (2002) |
|
| Fiscal year | 1 April - 31 March |
|
