The current account balance narrowed by nearly a half to a deficit of 1,811.6 million US dollars in the year ending February 2017 on account of a 15 per cent decline in imports of goods and services combined with increase in exports.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review for March shows that the annual export value of goods and services amounted to 9,174.4 million US dollars compared with 8,978.1 million US dollars last year. Noticeable improvements were recorded in most of the traditional and non-traditional exports, particularly gold and travel receipts which is mainly tourism.
The value of traditional exports rose by 17.8 per cent to 896.7 million US dollars in the year ending February 2017 from February 2016. Much of the improvement came from export of cashew nuts. Earnings from the other main traditional export crop including coffee, sisal, tea and cloves that declined at varying degrees.
Notably, the value of cashew nuts increased on account of both volume and price, whilst cotton and tobacco exports improved as a result of price changes. By contrast, export value of cloves decreased owing to a fall in both price and volume, while sisal and tea declined on account of a fall in volume as prices increased. Coffee recorded low export value due to a decline in price as volume increased.
The price movements of most of the traditional exports were consistent with world market prices of commodities. Non-traditional exports fetched 4,176.6 million US dollars compared with 4,199.8 million US dollars in year ending February 2016. There was an increase in value of minerals particularly gold, as well as for horticultural products and some commodities in the category of ‘other exports’.
Gold export improved by 25.6 per cent to 1,468.1 million US dollars due to recovery in price in the world market and increase in volume. By contrast, manufactured goods fell to 1,005.1 million US dollars from 1,319.5 million US dollars in the year ending February 2016.
Manufactured goods that declined included edible oil, as well as iron and steel products.
Daily News
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