THE current account improved to a deficit of 4,002 million US dollars in the year ended October from 4,972.3 million US dollars recorded in the corresponding period 2014.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly
economic review shows that the improvement was a result of an increase
in the value of export of goods and services, coupled with a decrease in
the value of imports of goods.
Exports of goods and services amounted
to 9,406.1 million US dollars, an increase of 9.2 per cent over the
value recorded in the corresponding year.
Much of the improved performance was
observed in the export of manufactured goods and travel receipts mainly
receipts from tourism.
Traditional exports increased by 9
percent to 839.2 million US dollars in the year under review with the
increase contributed largely driven by improved performance in the
export of cashew nuts, coffee, sisal and tobacco.
The improved performance of export of
cashew nut was a result of increase in both volume and price, while that
of coffee and sisal was driven by price changes.
The export value of tobacco was due to
the increase in volume. In the meantime, the gross official foreign
reserves amounted to 4,034.2 million US dollars compared with 4,273.2
million US dollars at the end of October 2014.
This was contributed to payment of
external government obligations as well as foreign exchange sales in the
market by the BoT for liquidity management and reducing of excessive
volatility in exchange rate especially owing to a sharp appreciation of
the UD dollars that occurred in the second half of 2014/15.
Nonetheless, the reserves remained
adequate, sufficient to cover 4 months of projected imports of goods and
services, excluding those financed by foreign direct investment. Gross
foreign assets of banks amounted to 1,161.0 million US dollars at the
end of the period under review, a notable increase from 807.4 million US
dollars at the end of October 2014.
The increase was driven, to a large
extent, by holding of US dollars in the face of strengthening of the US
dollar against most currencies.
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