Namibia's economy contracted in 2017 by 0.4 percent but is expected to recover and expand by 1.2 percent in 2018 and by double that the year after as a return of government spending boots activity, the finance minister said on Wednesday.

The small southern African nation's budget deficit will decrease to 4.5 percent of GDP in 2018/19 from 5.8 percent in the previous year, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein in a budget speech delivered before parliament.

-Reuters