The economy of the African nation of Namibia, which is largely dependant on the mining and production of rough and polished diamonds, is expected to shrink by 0.6% in 2009, the country's central bank announced this week.

Bank of Namibia governor Tom Alweendo said this week that Namibia's diamond production industry will shrink by 40% to 800,000 carats by the end of 2009. Alweendo said that Namibia's diamond industry has been "hard hit by the global economic crisis," saying 1,900 jobs had been lost due to a decline in demand.

But despite a drop in diamond mining, other mining sectors, such as uranium mining, are expected to grow by 2% in 2009 after it shark by 8% in 2008. In 2008, Namibia produced 5,000 tons of uranium oxide, making it the world's fourth largest producer after Canada, Kazakhstan and Australia.