Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA’S current account recorded a deficit of 1,457.7 million US dollars in the year ending July compared with 908.4 million US dollars in the similar period last year on account of the decline in travel receipts.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review for August this year much of the decline in travel receipts reflected the impact of the pandemic.
During the period under review, services receipts declined by 22.2 per cent to 2,503.7 million US dollars compared to 3,383.1 US dollars registered in the corresponding period last year.
Travel receipts, which accounted for 39.0 percent of total service receipts, declined by 41 per cent to 975.3 million US dollars on account of containment measures implemented by various countries against Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of international arrivals declined to 701,125 from 1,090,753 in the year to July this year. On a monthly basis, in July 2021, services receipts increased to 253.5 million US dollars compared with 140.2 million US dollars in July last year attributed to an increase in travel receipts, suggesting a gradual pickup of tourism activities from last year.
The overall balance of payments improved to a surplus of 436.4 million US dollars compared with a surplus of 381.1 million US dollars explained by increase in external financial inflows.
During the year ending July this year exports of goods and services amounted to 8,976.8 million US dollars compared with 9,382.1 million US dollars in the corresponding period last year.
The exports of goods increased by 5 per cent to 6,473.1 million US dollars with non-traditional exports rising by 703.1 million US dollars to 5,562.8 million US dollars. A notable increase was from exports of gold, manufactured goods, and horticultural products.
Gold exports, increased by 261.9 million US dollars to 2,990.5 million US dollars and accounted for 53.8 per cent of export of nontraditional exports boosted by high price in the world market. Export of manufactured goods increased by 36 per cent to 1,116.2 million US dollars while horticultural products increased to 332 million US dollars from 194.6 million US dollars.
Exports categorised under other exports sub-group surged by 84.1 per cent to 739.3 million US dollars mostly due to an increase in exports of rice and beans to neighbouring countries, and oilseeds to Asia.
On a month-to-month basis, export value of nontraditional goods slightly decreased to 591.4 million US dollars from 596.3 million US dollars in July last year.
Traditional exports decreased to 593.7 million US dollars in the year ending July last year from 991.4 million US dollars in the corresponding period last year largely due to low prices, owing to subdued demand in world market attributable to effects of the pandemic.
The decline was observed in all traditional export crops, except coffee and sisal.
On a monthly basis however, traditional exports rose to 23.4 million US dollars compared with 8.1 million US dollars in the corresponding month last year. This is occurred in exports of coffee, cotton and tobacco.
