Ester Mbathera
The Governor of the Bank of Namibia (BoN), Johannes !Gawaxab has warned that policy uncertainties and economic shifts between South Africa and the United States could impact Namibia’s economy.
Speaking at the central bank’s first Monetary Policy Announcement for 2025 on Wednesday, he urged policymakers to closely monitor exchange rate fluctuations and trade developments.
“What we need to do is we need to watch trade wars and we need to watch exchange rate movements and see what the impact thereof is on the Namibian economy. Particularly, the relationship between South Africa and the US will have a profound impact on the Namibian economy,” he said.
!Gawaxab highlighted that South Africa hosts about 600 US companies employing over 200,000 people.
Trade between the US and South Africa accounts for about 5% of South Africa’s GDP.
Any disruptions according to !Gawaxab could have ripple effects on Namibia, particularly through exchange rate movements.
“The impact thereof we’ll probably see through the exchange rate because our currency is pegged to the South African rand,” he said.
!Gawaxab said the trade relations between Namibia and South Africa and the US account for about 5% of the gross domestic product of South Africa.
“So what we need to do is to monitor the situation, stay close to that, so that we can see how it fits into our inflation, our growth, how it fits into SACU (Southern African Customs Union) revenue in the next few years. So there’s quite a lot of policy uncertainty and that requires close monitoring,” he said.
On 7 February, American President Donald Trump announced a freeze on aid to South Africa.
He accused South Africa of mistreating its white minority following the introduction of a recent law on the expropriation of land.
The statement adds that the United States will withhold aid and support from South Africa for as long as it engages in what it claims are unjust and immoral actions that negatively impact the US.
