Current account deficit narrows on high net inflows
DAR ES SALAAM: CURRENT account deficit narrowed to 2.499 billion US dollars from 5.221 billion US dollars a year ending May driven by high net inflows in the services account amid favourable world commodity prices.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) latest monthly economic review report the external sector continued to improve, owing to easing of global supply chain disruptions and commodity prices.
The exports of goods and services increased by 15 per cent to 14.541 billion US dollars in the year ending May.
“A notable export increase was observed in gold, services in particular travel (tourism), traditional goods, horticulture products, as well as fish and fish products,” the report said.
The exports of traditional goods increased to 1.051 billion US dollars in the year ending May higher than 761.6 million US dollars in the same period last year.
The increase was primarily driven by high exports of tobacco, cashew nuts and coffee, manifested in both prices and volumes.
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The exports of non-traditional goods increased to 6.345 billion US dollars for the year ending May compared with 6.171 billion US dollars in the corresponding period last year.
The growth was driven by high exports of gold, oil seeds, horticultural products, fish and fish products. Gold exports were 3.115 billion US dollars compared with 2.897 billion US dollars in the previous year, largely due to price effects.
The exports of oil seeds increased by 52.6 per cent to 301.3 million US dollars and horticultural products’ exports rose by 36.7 per cent to 407.8 million US dollars with significant contributions from vegetables and fruits.
Service receipts increased to 6.716 billion US dollars in the year ending May this year up from 5.303 billion US dollars in the corresponding period last year.
The increase was driven by high receipts from travel (tourism) and transport services.
The rise in travel receipts was supported by improvement in the tourism sector, with tourist arrivals increasing by 21.9 per cent to 1,961,870.
