TANZANIA: TOURIST arrivals increased by 24.3 per cent to a record breaking of 1,808,205 tourists in the year ending December last year compared to 1,797,347 in the preceding period, thanks to the rebound of the tourism sector that led to surge in travel receipts.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review for January shows that service receipts amounted to 6,280.8 million US dollars from 4,762 million US dollars in the year ending December 2022, driven by travel (toursm) and transport receipts.
On a monthly basis, the Bank report said the service receipts were 611.9 million US dollars compared with 459.6 million US dollars in December 2022. On the other hand, the export of non-traditional goods grew by 4.3 per cent to 6,320.4 million US dollars with much of the increase registered in gold exports.
The exports of gold rose to 3,058.9 million US dollars compared with 2,835.1 million US dollars in the year ending December 2022, on account of both volume and price effects.
The increase was also registered in exports of oil seeds and horticulture, particularly edible vegetables. The export of traditional goods edged up to 953.1 million US dollars from 766.5 million US dollars largely driven by exports of coffee and tobacco.
During the period under review, the external shocks continued to exert pressure on the current account position, foreign reserves and exchange rate. Notwithstanding, the deficit in the current account has gradually been narrowing in recent months.
In the year ending December 2023, the current account deficit narrowed to 2,855.3 million US dollars compared with 5,378.5 million US dollars in the preceding period in 2022.
The outturn was largely on account of earnings from tourism activities and non-traditional exports coupled with the decline in commodity prices, particularly oil.
The export of goods and services exhibited a rising trend throughout last year increasing by 16.6 per cent to 13,976 million US dollars in the year ending December 2023 from the level recorded in the preceding year. The performance was largely contributed by tourism receipts, gold, and traditional exports.
During the period, the foreign exchange reserves, the stock was 5,450.1 million US dollars compared with 5,177.2 million US dollars at the end of December 2022. The reserves were adequate to cover about 4.5 months of projected imports of goods and services, above the country’s benchmark of four months.