THE Bank of Namibia has announced and forecast to say local economic activity would massively dry up this year, and not even the government’s stimulus package can stop this from happening.
In the recently released April 2020 outlook, the central bank revised the 2020 economic outlook from a growth of 1,5% announced in February this year, to a contraction of 6,9%.
“The deep contraction estimated for 2020 is attributed to the outbreak of Covid-19, which led to travel restrictions across the world and lockdowns in many countries,” said the bank in its outlook write-up.
The most affected industries driving this economic slowdown include hotels and restaurants, mining and quarrying, and the beverages sector, among others, said the central bank.
According to their projections, the effect of the travel restrictions would be felt until July this year.
Early this month The Namibian reported that the local economy was losing at least N$2 billion a week because of the lockdown.
The Bank of Namibia also said the 6,9% slowdown was concluded after taking into consideration the available government stimulus package that was said to be a cushion against the impact of Covid-19.
The diamond, uranium, metal ores and the construction sectors are all projected to slump and there is no dose of optimism from the central bank this time. However, it appears more still needs to be done.
According to reports globally, projections are the world economy will nosedive by 3% in 2020 before recovering to a positive 5,8%. For Namibia, hopes for positive growth will only dawn in 2021, at 1,8% the central bank said.
