The Namibian Mid-Year Budget 2025/2026
Beyond 35: For a prosperous future
The Minister of Finance , Hon. Ericah B Shafudah, tabled her mid-year budget statement in Parliament earlier today where she provided an update on the country’s economic performance and announced key policy adjustments for the 2025/2026 fiscal year. The budget of N$89.4 billion that was tabled in March 2025 has been retained with some reallocations, which we discuss in more in our commentary.
The International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) estimated global economic growth to decrease to 3.2% in 2025, from 3.3% in 2024 and expects a further decrease of 0.1% in 2026.
Growth in the Sub-Saharan African region is estimated at 4.1% in 2025 and 4.4% in 2026. The upward revision is mainly driven by improved output in Nigeria, due to higher oil production and improved investor confidence.
The IMF encouraged governments to adopt a more strategic approach in managing public debt and fiscal challenges by enhanced efficiency rather than increasing budgets. Strategic redirection should be towards growth enhancing sectors i.e., education and infrastructure. Namibia’s response, at this stage, is mixed in that the mid-year reallocations reduced the development budget by 9.38% and increased the budget to the education vote by about 3%.
Initial estimated economic growth for 2025/2026 has been revised downwards to 3.3% from 4.5% and downwards to 3.6% from 4.3% for 2026/2027. We review the Minister’s update on fiscal developments for 2024/2025, examine priority projects, assess revenue collections for 2025/2026, consider the reallocation of the 2025/2026 budget, and discuss tax policy in our commentary.
