09:42
Headquarters of the central bank of Tanzania.The bank has announced that
travel earnings have surpassed those of gold in September. PHOTO|FILE
Travel has surpassed gold as Tanzania’s leading foreign exchange
earner. The latter has suffered some shocks in recent months following
falling prices at the world market.
The Bank of Tanzania said in its September Monthly
Economic Review that the value of gold export declined from $2.15
billion in the year ending September 2012 to $1.748 billion in the year
ending September 2013 while tourism surged from $1.61 billion to $1.82
billion during the same period.
Export value of gold declined following a decrease
in both export volume and unit price. Export unit price for gold
declined by 8.2 per cent to an average of $1,524.59 per troy ounce from
the price recorded in the year ending September 2012, according to the
central bank review.
The fall of gold export partly affected the
performance of export of goods and services that declined 1.4 per cent
to $8.242 billion during the year ending September this year compared to
$8.362 billion recorded in the corresponding period in 2012.
“Despite the decline in export values, gold and
manufactured goods continued to dominate nontraditional exports,” the
MER shows in part.
However, overall balance of payments recorded a
surplus of $419.5 million compared with a surplus of $593.4 million
recorded in the corresponding period in 2012.
The narrowing of the surplus was partly explained by a widening of the current account deficit.
The current account deficit, according to the BoT,
widened by 26.1 per cent to $4.676 billion in 12 months to September
pushed by Official current transfers declined by 43.7 per cent from the
levels recorded in the year ending September 2012, said the central
bank.
Data also shows that the value of import of goods
and services increased by 2.9 per cent to $10.847 billion from the
levels recorded in the year ending September 2012, topped by oil at
$4.15 billion this September .
Gross official reserves amounted to $4.59 million
as at end of September 2013, sufficient to cover 4.5 months of projected
imports of goods and services excluding those financed by foreign
direct investment.
Source: Thecitizen
Source: Thecitizen
