Namibia's economic growth likely to drop this year -IMF

The International Monetary Fund has announced that Namibia’s economic growth is likely to drop this year from 5.3 percent in 2015 to 2.5 percent.

The figure contradicts with the 4.3 percent provided by Namibia’s central bank before the start of the year.

The IMF says this has been caused by slow budgetary consolidation efforts of authorities as well as a slow down in the buildings and public works sector.

IMF officials equally cite the reduction in the prices of raw materials and the poor climatic condition caused by El Nino.

The difficult economic situation in South Africa has affected Namibia’s economy, because the Namibian dollar is pegged to the South African rand.

The IMF projects that Namibia’s growth rate will witness an increase again in 2017. The increase is projected at five percent due to the exploitation of new mines.

Namibia’s inflation rate is projected to reduce to less than 10 percent.

Uranium rich Namibia is the first producer of sea diamond in the world.