Africa-Press – Tanzania. Zanzibar current account balance widened to a deficit of 263.7 million US dollars in the year ending May from a deficit of 40.1 million US dollars registered during the corresponding period last year.
This was largely attributed to an increase in imports of goods, coupled with a decrease in exports of goods and services
Exports of goods and services decreased to 117.3 million US dollars in the year ending May this year from 238.5 million US dollars registered in the corresponding period in May this year driven by the poor performance of exports of cloves and tourism services.
Earnings from cloves export declined to 1.4 million US dollars from 18.3 million US dollars earned in the year ending May last year.
On a month-to-month basis, goods exports rose to 1.3 million US dollars this year compared to 1.2 million US dollars in May last year and to 1.1 million US dollars in April this year largely due to an increase in manufactured goods.
The value of imports of goods and services amounted to 443.2 million US dollars in the year ending May from 392.9 million US dollars in the corresponding period last year.
This development was associated with an increase in imports of capital and consumer goods. Most of the imported capital goods were machinery and transport equipment.
On a month-to-month basis, imports amounted to 19.4 million US dollars compared to 13.9 million US dollars in May last year and 18.8 million US dollars in April this year.
Majority of imports in May 2021 comprised of oil and other consumer goods that accounted for 44.3 per cent compared to 36.2 per cent in the preceding month and 37.3 per cent in May last year.
