Thursday, November 17, 2016

Current account deficit drops as exports soar

DAILY NEWS Reporter
CURRENT account has narrowed to a deficit of 1,912.0 million US dollars in the year ending August 2016 compared with 4,910.7 million US dollars of the corresponding period due to an increase in exports and imports fall.

According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review, the value of exports went up by 7.1 percent to 9,477.2 million US dollars due to an increase in travel, manufactured goods and gold exports.
The value of traditional exports amounted to 822.6 million US dollars, which is 2.6 percent lower over the preceding year. The decline was due to low value of cashew nuts export in both volume and prices, which more than offset the increase in values of other traditional export crops, namely tea, sisal, cloves and coffee.
The value of tobacco remained broadly the same as in the corresponding period while strong growth of tea was on account of increase in price and that of sisal and cotton driven by price and volume.
The value of coffee and cloves increased owing to volume increase despite recording lower prices, consistent with the general subdued prices of commodities in the world market.
The value of non-traditional export commodities amounted to 4,389.3 million US dollars compared with 4,010.7 million US dollars recorded in the corresponding period in 2015.
Much of the increase was registered in manufactured goods, gold, horticultural products, re-export and category of ‘other exports’ namely cereals, hides and skins, cocoa and wood products.
Export of manufactured goods increased by 5 percent to 1,330.9 million US dollars with a notable increase recorded in edible oil, textile apparels, plastic goods, fertilisers and paper products.
On the other hand, gold increased by 5.9 percent to 1,307.7 million US dollars on account of a slight recovery in gold price in the world market and increase in volume.
Services receipts amounted to 3,744.1 million US dollars compared to 3,512.3 million US dollars in the preceding year due to the increase in receipts from travel and transportation services.
Travel receipts grew by 12.8 percent to 2,267.4 million US dollars following an increase in the number of tourist arrivals.
Meanwhile, transport receipts increased by 2.8 percent to 1,034.6 million US dollars owing to the increase in transit goods to and from neighbouring countries.
Travel and transportation remained dominant in the services receipts, accounting for 60.7 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively

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