Africa-Press – Tanzania. LOWER services receipts have contributed to the widening of the current account deficit to 1,557.7 million US dollars in May this year compared to 1,137.8 million US dollars in the same period the previous year.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), the monthly economic review for June services receipts decreased by 39.2 per cent to 2,266.5 million US dollars for the year ending May.
Travel receipts, which account for 38.0 per cent of total service receipts, declined by 62.0 per cent to 795.8 million US dollars owing to containment measures implemented by various countries against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thus, the number of international arrivals declined to 589,570 from 1,341,958 in the year to May last year. In May 2021, services receipts increased to 189.6 million US dollars, compared to 109.7 million US dollars in May last year attributed to an increase in travel receipts.
During the period under review, the overall balance of payments was a deficit of 98.7 million US dollars compared to a surplus of 1,034.0 million US dollars owing to relatively low external financial inflows.
The exports of goods and services performed satisfactorily despite a decline where the value of exports of goods and services amounted to 8,500.0 million US dollars compared with 9,554.6 million US dollars during the same period last year largely attributed to a decrease in travel receipts.
Meanwhile, the value of goods exported increased by 6.6 per cent to 6,233.6 million US dollars owing to the good performance of non-traditional exports.
The value of non-traditional exports rose to 5,364.0 million US dollars from 4,530.5 million US dollars with a significant increase registered in exports of gold, manufactured goods and horticultural products. Gold exports, which accounted for 56.4 per cent of total nontraditional exports, increased by 505.3 million US dollars to 3,027.4 million US dollars, fostered by supportive prices in the world market and ongoing government initiatives to manage the mining sector.
On a month-to-month basis, the export value of non-traditional exports fell to 468.7 million US dollars from 504.3 million US dollars in May last year following low exports of mineral concentrates. In contrast, during the year ending May, the value of traditional exports declined to 577.4 million US dollars from 998.9 million US dollars in the corresponding period last year owing to lower export values of all cash crops except coffee and sisal.
Prices for all cash crops increased during the period save for tea and cashew nuts. On a monthly basis, the value of traditional exports remained broadly the same amounting to 15.9 million US dollars in May this year compared with 14.8 million US dollars registered in the corresponding period last year.
