Economic recovery comes from faith
By Petrus Haikela Hanghuwo |
There is literally no nation in the world that would prefer to fall in deficit despite its economic state, and the capacity to recover from various economic breakdowns helps every economic society to measure its ability to respond to certain economic situations.
It is therefore interesting for every nation in its entirety to acquaint itself with the updates about its recovery positions from any economic breakdown.
In this era of Covid-19, economists are concerned about countries’ ability to recover from the adverse impacts of this pandemic, the corona virus, as there are quite huge numbers of nations that indicate little progress in their economic updates since the start of Covid-19 more than a year ago.
Firstly, economists would scrutinize the economic scenarios of a society in order to engage well in right resilience practices that would attempt to create a recovery from the effects of the recession period at hand.
For example Covid-19 has led to an increase in unemployment rate and a dip in the money markets across the globe with football association having been mostly negatively affected; hence, retrenchments occurred in some companies.
According to the Economic Policy Research Association, in 2020, many businesses indicated they had downsized since the beginning of the pandemic.
By the way, this indication informs the bodies responsible for implementing the country’s recovery strategies, e.g, Namibia Financial Sector Strategy, to find ways that encourage increase in business activity, because there is an indication that Namibia’s business policy environment is discouraging mostly in the private sector.
Now, since there has been situations like lockdowns that affected economic states of countries across the globe, countries like South Africa indicate that they are recovering, even though by not so much and fast margins, from the downsizing of the economy over the periods in which lockdowns had been ordered by governments.
Sometimes it’s a good comparison when Namibia is compared to South Africa. If we look at the Namibian currency, it’s pegged to the South African Rand, which is a benefit to the Namibian economy.
In other words, it’s a pull for Namibia to strive towards reaching the economic state of South Africa since she is not just the developed country when compared to Namibia, but to the rest of the African continent.
Economic recovery and resilience is especially needed in most of the Namibian companies who indicated that they have in the recent past experienced a dip of about N$ 10 billion in their commercial value.
The major reasons appear to be Covid-19 and restrictions such as lockdowns and curfews which adversely affected the operations of companies such as Namibian Breweries Limited, Nictus Holdings, Oryx Properties Limited, Paratus Namibia to name but a few.
Another reason that appeared in the mind of this text is the discouragement in the private sector and the lack of faith in the future productivity of the country. Now because there has been a dip experienced by numerous integral companies in Namibia, how able is the state at large to recover the lost value by the companies?
While, the necessary bodies are engaged in the process, private sector companies also need to engage actively in the recovery and resilience process, because it’s only the Paratus Namibia Holdings and Namibia Asset Managers that indicate an edging in the lost value lately.
In conclusion, in order for the economy to recovery there is need for all stakeholders to exercise faith in the ability of the economy to grow, faith in the future productivity of the country, and faith in the young graduates on whose shoulders the economy will be perched in the near future.
– Petrus Haikela Hanghuwo is a young economic educator. Email: hhaikela@yahoo.com
