Dar es Salaam. Gold, which was once Tanzania’s largest foreign exchange earner, sustained a fall in the value of income from its exports as the mineral faces trouble in the world market.
The value of gold exports reached above $2.08 billion in the year ending October 2012, but the shipment decelerated to $1.75 billion in 2013 and stood at $1.35 billion in the year to October 2014, according to Bank of Tanzania (BoT).
The figure puts the mineral in the second largest foreign exchange recipient after travel (tourism) which has been increasing in the last few years.
Travel recorded $1.96 billion in the year to October 2014 up from $1.79 billion in the same period in 2013 and $1.62 billion in 2012, BoT’s November Monthly Economic Review shows.
“Gold which has been dominant in the non-traditional export recorded a decline following a decrease in both volume and price,” says the statement. The yellow metal has been trading below the 2013’s close of above $1,200 per ounce in the world market and the trend has affected its income in Tanzania.
The total value of Tanzania’s exports of goods and services was $8.6 billion, being 3.3 per cent higher compared with the amount that was recorded in the corresponding period in 2013. The development was attributed to good performance in exports of manufactured goods, fish and fish products as well as increase in travel and transport receipts, BoT says. Export of manufactured goods increased by 35.5 per cent to $1.37 billion with a notable increase recorded in edible oil, textile apparels, plastic goods, fertilizers and paper products. During the period, the value of traditional exports was $768.2 million compared with $841.7 million recorded in the year ending October 2013.
The Citizen
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