WINDHOEK, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's secondary industries were impacted more than the other industries by the measures taken to curb COVID-19, posting a decline of 14.4 percent in 2020 compared to an increase of 1.7 percent registered in 2019, according to the country's statistics agency (NSA) on Wednesday.
The poor performance in the secondary industries was observed in the manufacturing sector and construction sector, NSA Statistician-General, Alex Shimuafeni said in the Economics Statistics Report released Wednesday.
"Within the manufacturing sector, the sub-sectors that recorded the highest declines were the basic non-ferrous metals, meat processing and beverages," he added.
According to Shimuafeni, the secondary industries were followed by the primary industries with a contraction of 6.1 percent, albeit a recovery when compared to a steeper decline of 6.9 percent in 2019.
"The poor performance in the primary industries was mainly reflected in the mining sector that declined by 14.9 percent while the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector recorded an increase of 5.9 percent in real value added in 2020 compared to a decline of 3.2 percent registered in the preceding year," he added.
Shimuafeni said with regard to the tertiary industries, poor performance was observed in most of the sectors. Enditem
