Z’bar current account surplus grows 35 per cent
ZANZIBAR: ZANZIBAR’S current account surplus expanded by 34.7 per cent in the year to September, driven primarily by a strong increase in service receipts as tourism-related activities continued to rebound and outperform other external-sector components.
The latest Bank of Tanzania (BoT) Monthly Economic Review shows that the current account surplus has increased to 836.6 million US dollars, up from 621.2 million US dollars recorded during the corresponding period last year.
During the period under review, tourist arrivals increased by 28.2 per cent, reaching 885,385 visitors in the year ending September. This notable growth reflects a continued recovery of the tourism sector and strengthened international travel demand.
Exports of goods and services grew by 27.3 per cent to 1.47 billion US dollars, compared to the amount recorded in the period ending September last year.
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“This performance was mainly ascribed to increased service receipts, particularly from tourism, which rose by 36.4 per cent to 1.50 billion US dollars,” stated the BoT report.
In contrast, the value of clove exports declined by 76 per cent to 6.3 million US dollars with the performance explained mainly by the crop’s production cycle.
On a monthly basis, exports of goods and services declined to 146.1 million US dollars from 151.7 million US dollars recorded in September last year.
The imports of goods and services rose by 18.9 per cent to 658.4 million US dollars in the period ending September last year, compared to the amount recorded in the same period in last year.
“This increase was largely due to heightened imports of goods, particularly capital and consumer goods,” the report said.
The imports of capital goods increased by 84.7 per cent to 73.6 million US dollars mainly attributed to increased imports of industrial transport equipment.
As for consumer goods, the increase was mainly driven by imports of non-industrial transport equipment. On a month-to-month basis, imports of goods and services rose to 54.3 million US dollars from 44 million US dollars recorded in September last year.
