The Bank of Namibia’s stock of international reserves declined in November by 1.5% month to month to N$50.6 billion, relative to N$51.4 billion in October.
The central bank said the decline is attributable to higher commercial bank outflows as a result of a rising import bills. The foreign reserves translated into 5.1 months of import cover, continuing to remain above the international benchmark of three months and adequate to support the Namibia Dollar and the South African Rand currency peg.
The central bank said the overall liquidity position of the banking industry decreased at the end of November. The industry’s cash balances declined to N$5.9 billion in November from N$7.5 billion recorded in October.
“This depicts a month-on-month decrease of N$1.6 billion attributed to corporate tax payments to the state during the review period,” the central bank said.
On an annual basis growth in mortgage credit stood at 1.3% at the end of November relative to a growth of 1% in October.
“The steady growth in mortgage credit mainly emanated from improved growth levels from the corporate sector coupled by a sustained growth in the household sector in the review period.”
The annual growth in instalment sales and leasing credit remained robust increasing to 11.8% in November from 9.4% in October.
The central bank said the rise emanated from an increase in the leasing facilities of corporations in the whole sale and retail sector, car rentals as well as construction sectors coupled by a higher demand from the household sector during the period under review.
Overdraft credit posted a lower growth of 0.1% in November, relative to a growth of 4.4% at the end of October.
The central bank said the decline was due to lower demand from corporates in the mining, services, whole sale and retail trade sectors coupled with repayments from the household sector during the period under review.
Growth in credit extended to businesses rose to 0.7% in November, an increase relative to a contraction of 1.4% in October.
“The rise in credit stemmed from an increase in demand from corporates in the services,
tourism as well as the wholesale and retail trade sector over the review period.”
The central bank said the Private Sector Credit (PSCE) growth increased at the end of November. The annual growth in PSCE increased to 2%, year-on-year in November, relative to 1.8% at the end of September.
