|
|
Tanzania: Zanzibar Current Account Healthy
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 20 May 2008
Damas Kanyabwoya
Zanzibar's current account recorded a surplus of $0.7 million in March this year from a deficit of $3.5 million the previous month.
The trend was due to declining imports coupled with improved official receipts of grants from donor countries.
"The trade account improved by registering a deficit of $4.8 million down from $7.6 million, recorded in the preceding month," the Bank of Tanzania April economic review indicated.
In March, receipts from exported goods and services declined to $5.2 million from $5.8 million the previous month, says the report.
The declined was associated with falling commodity exports.
Exports of cloves slumped in both volume and price. $0.08 million was earned from exporting the crop compared with $0.8 million in February 2008.
Receipts from services amounted to $4.4 million, and accounted for 84.6 per cent of total exports.
Goods worth $6.2 million were imported in March compared with $9.9 million the previous month due to a decrease in the volume of oil imports and building and construction imports.
"Oil imports amounted to $0.1 million down from $5 million for the previous month, on account of sufficient stocks.
Capital goods imports amounted to $2.7 million while intermediate goods driven by oil declined by 79.9 per cent to $1.1 million.
"Imports of consumer goods increased to $2.4 million from $ 1.7 million due to a surge in imports of foods and foodstuffs items," reads the report.
The current account surplus amounted to $9.6 million in the year ending March 2008, below $22.8 million the previous corresponding period.
The trade account registered a larger deficit of $68.9 million, exceeding $59 million recorded in the previous period due to increase in imports bill, emanating from increase in oil bill and foodstuffs.
The deficit was accommodated by service receipts and official grants.
In the year ending March 2008, total exports of goods and services declined to $89.8 million from $105.1 million in the previous corresponding period.
Service receipts amounted to $75 million in the year to March 2008 from $92.7 million registered in the corresponding period in 2007.
The service receipts were the dominant source, accounting for 83.5 per cent of total export receipts.
$4 million was earned from cloves exports, accounting for 4.9 per cent of the total exports.
Seaweeds of $2.4 million or 2.7 per cent were exported.
Manufactured goods amounted to $3.7 million representing three per cent while fish and fish produce earned $0.2 million, accounting for 0.3 per cent of total export receipts.
Goods imports increased to $92.1 million in the year ending March 2008, from $78.4 million recorded in the year ending March 2007.
The increase was linked with increase in both capital and intermediate goods.
Imports of capital goods increased to $42.7 million from $36.5 million, responding to a rise in transport equipment imports.
|
Imports of intermediate goods rose to $24.4 million from $21.7 million in corresponding period in 2007, largely due to a 14.6 per cent increase in oil imports to $17.7 million.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Citizen. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
