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• GDP: US$5.5 billion (2004).
• Main exports: Minerals, beef, cattle and fish.
• Main imports: Foodstuffs, construction material and manufactured goods.
• Main trade partners: South Africa, UK, Spain, Japan and USA.
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The mining industry is the strongest part of the economy, the kernel of Namibia’s export economy, and accounts for about 20
per cent of GDP. Extracted minerals include silver, copper, lead, zinc, tungsten and uranium, and Namibia is also the source
of some of the world’s highest-quality diamonds. A much larger proportion of the workforce – 45 per cent against 4 per cent
engaged in mining – is engaged in agriculture and fishing. Livestock dominates the agricultural sector, although a substantial
proportion of the agricultural workforce is engaged in subsistence farming of crops such as wheat, maize and millet. Agriculture
is becoming increasingly difficult over time as the desert encroaches on previously fertile soil; it has also suffered chronic
damage from the recurrent drought afflicting the whole region. Namibia enjoys exceptionally rich fishing grounds, although
stocks of pilchard – the main species in the area – have been depleted by uncontrolled fishing in the period before Namibian
independence. Commercial shipping activity has picked up since the return of Walvis Bay, the best deep-water port in Africa
on the Atlantic side, to Namibian jurisdiction (the apartheid government in Pretoria tried to hang on to the port, even after
independence). The establishment of a free-trade zone at Walvis Bay has further enhanced its status as a centre for regional
trade. Manufacturing is mainly devoted to processing of raw materials and agricultural produce. Most of the country’s trade
is with South Africa, essentially involving the exchange of raw materials for manufactured goods. Recent economic policy has
seen many former state enterprises transferred to the private sector. The economy has performed reasonably well during the
last decade. Annual growth in 2004 was 5.7 per cent and inflation was 4.1 per cent. However, unemployment hovers at around
35 per cent.
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Overview 
