The Namibian economy appears to have grown slightly more in 2011 than earlier projections indicated.
The July issue of Economic Update, the first in a series of short economic publications from the Ministry of Finance, puts the preliminary 2011 economic growth at four-comma-nine per cent.
This is better than the earlier growth forecast of four-comma-two per cent for the year.
The Finance Ministry welcomes this resilience as encouraging, given the ongoing global financial turmoil
It says the 2011 growth was driven by the secondary and tertiary industries, with primary industries performing poorly as expected, because of reduced mining activity.
The Ministry says the production of diamonds and zinc has declined, whereas that of uranium and copper have increased.
Manufacturing continues to perform below potential, while growth in construction is likely to remain high but not at 2011 rates.
The Finance Ministry states that the tertiary sector has also shown signs of slowing down in early 2012, although some of this could be explained by seasonality, for example tourism.
It concludes that, in general, it does not expect the high growth rates of the past two years to continue this year.