The Namibia Statistics Agency has just released the final national accounts for 2014. As per our expectations, we have seen a major upward revision in the overall real growth rate, from 4.5% to 6.4%, slightly below our forecast of 6.8%. This revision brings both the overall growth level more in line with levels seen in high frequency indicators through the year, as well as showing notable improvement in many of the sectors growth levels, bringing these more in line with growth witnessed on the ground.
Some of the key revisions to the supply side tables (real GDP) are noted below.
We also note that we have seen a sizable revision to the deflator between the nominal and real GDP figures. The peculiarly high deflator in the preliminary accounts was of some concern to us, as we believed it was artificially large, and dampening the real GDP growth picture. The new and previous deflators, relative to NCPI, can be seen below.
We are currently working on a National Accounts review, and will share more thoughts on the current release in due course.