Labour market expected to stabilise
JOB losses are expected to slow down by the end of this year and employment is expected to improve into next year, said Klaus Schade, director of the Economic Association of Namibia (EAN), at a Namibia Statistics Agency event yesterday. He said employment in the agricultural sector is expected to grow after this year’s good […]
Labour Force Survey 2016 Report released
The NSA released the Labour Force Survey 2016 report today, 5 July 2017. After three consecutive annual surveys between 2012 and 2014, no survey was conducted in 2015. Hence, this report provides relevant information on the situation on the labour market at a point in time, when the Namibian economy was on a downward trend. […]
First Investor Confidence Indicator for Africa (ICIFA) released
The U.S. – Africa Business Centre has released the first Investor Confidence Indicator for Africa end of June. It is composed of 13 widely used indicators, such as the Global Competitiveness ranking, Ease of Doing Business, Corruption Index, Ibrahim Index of African Governance and GDP Per Capita. Southern African countries are well represented amongst the […]
We might have hit the trough, but now the lookout for green shoots – Suta Kavari
Last year September I penned an opinion piece cautioning that the Namibian economy was on the brink of slipping into a recession. The article followed similar such warnings by many analysts at the time. Last week the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) confirmed those fears, we are in recession. According to the NSA reading, the economy […]
Would a National Business Council do the trick? Klaus Schade
The Fifth National Development Plan was launched two weeks ago on the 31st of May 2017. Contrary to general perceptions that often exist, this is not a Government Development Plan, but a National Development Plan designed through extensive consultations across the country and the various sectors of society. Not only because of the estimated investment […]
Govt not sole funder of NDP5 – Alweendo
ECONOMIC planning minister Tom Alweendo on Friday said government is not going to fund the whole of the recently launched fifth National Development Plan. Alweendo made this statement at a panel discussion of the plan held at a Windhoek hotel. The discussion was organised by the Economic Association of Namibia and Bank Windhoek and was […]
Too Poor to Own Land
North Central Namibia is interesting, and exciting for so many reasons. For me the best is driving through the informal clusters of small colourful cuca shops, flats, brick-makers, restaurants, tailors and more. While not perfect, tenure arrangements allow people to create these clusters of enterprise. Traders have enough security and confidence to build their businesses. […]
The Drawbacks of a Narrow Tax Base
Most people recognise that taxes are needed to pay for public services. However, few people realise that the sources of taxation, especially personal income tax, emanates from a small minority. The fact that many countries, including Namibia and South Africa, have such a narrow tax base is as a direct result of the great income […]
Rightsizing the public sector – Klaus Schade
Personnel expenditure has increased from 39.7 percent of the total budget in the 2016/17 financial year to 44.9 percent in the current financial year. If we had frozen salaries at last year’s level, the wage bill would have dropped to 39.1 percent of the total budget and some NAD3.6 billion could have been used to […]
Bush encroachment – Turning a problem into an industry – by Dagmar Honsbein and Colin Lindeque
Bush encroachment in Namibia is defined as the densification and rapid spread of native bush and shrub species, resulting in an imbalance of biodiversity. In addition to native species, invasion of exotic tree or shrub species such as Prosopis also pose a threat. This bush encroachment phenomenon is said to be caused by a number […]