AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE overall balance of payments recorded a surplus of 897.1 million US dollars from July 2019 to April 2020, compared with 1,082.3 million US dollars in the corresponding period of 2018/19 on account of the narrowing of deficit in the current account.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Monetary Policy Statement for the period to June the improvement was largely explained by increase in exports.
The outturn was on account of the narrowing of deficit in the current account to 333.3 million US dollars from a deficit of 1,620.2 million US dollars recorded in the corresponding period of 2018/19.
During the reference period, foreign exchange reserves remained adequate and above the country and regional benchmarks.
For example, the reserves amounted to 5,334.3 million US dollars at the end of April 2020 from 4,432.6 million US dollars at the end of June 2019.
The reserves were sufficient to cover 6.1 months of projected imports of goods and services, above the country benchmark of at least 4 months, and convergence criteria of East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC), countries of at least 4.5 and 6 months, respectively.
The value of exports of goods and services increased by 18.4 percent to 8,667.8 million US dollars over the period July 2019 to April 2020 from the level registered in the corresponding period of 2018/19.
The good performance was mainly on account of increase in the value of service receipts and export of goods, largely driven by tourism earning, gold and cashew nuts exports.
Export of gold, which accounted for 57.3 percent of non-traditional goods exports, increased to 2,097.9 million US dollars from 1,406.3 million US dollars registered in the corresponding period, on account of both volume and favourable prices in the world market.
The higher volume of gold export corresponds to government initiatives to effectively manage mining activities in the country.
The value of traditional goods exports was USD 989.1 million compared with 473.7 million US dollars recorded in the corresponding period of 2018/19, mainly explained by recovery in export of cashew nuts, which surged to 498.0 million US dollars from 1.9 million US dollars recorded in corresponding period.
Services receipts rose by 1.3 percent to 3,552.7 million US dollars from the amount registered in the corresponding period of 2018/19, largely explained by higher travel and transport receipts.
