DESPITE the global economic turbulence, Tanzania has sufficient foreign reserves to keep the country economically stable, Bank of Tanzania (BoT)'s senior economist Dr Ulrick Mumburi has said.
He dismissed claims that the country faces shortage of foreign exchange, particularly the US dollars.
He said this at the media briefing on inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Zanzibar for the month of March 2023. Inflation has decrease to 7.09 per cent from 7.77 per cent registered in February this year.
"We have a fair share of foreign-currency reserves including US dollars. It is above the reserve margin by about 4.8 per cent," Dr Mumburi said.
He also emphasized that Tanzania currency is stable and importers can access the forex as per regulations.
During recent meetings with the Zanzibar President Hussein Mwinyi and the Isles Minister for Finance and Planning Dr Saada Mkuya Salum, some importers and members of the business community claimed that there was a shortage of US dollars to enable them import enough goods including foods.
Meanwhile, the price statistics unit- Office of the Chief Government Statistician (OCGS) on Tuesday revealed its annual headline inflation rates for March showing a decline.
According to the head of the unit Ms Salma Saleh Ali, the drop was mainly driven by the decrease in the prices of commodities. Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation rate decreased by 10.06 per cent in March 2023, compared to 10.23 per cent in February 2023.
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She said that the overall Index increased to 104.31 in March 2023 compared to 97.41 recorded in March 2022 and that the annual Inflation Rate for food is 10.26 per cent for the year ended March 2023 compared to 10.45 per cent recorded for the year ended February 2023.
"The overall index for food increased to 108.05 in March 2023 from 97.99 recorded in March 2022," she said, adding that the annual inflation rate for non-food decreased to 4.96 per cent in March 2023 compared to 5.96 per cent in February 2023, and that the overall index for non-food increased to 101.76 in March 2023 compared to 96.97 in March 2022.
Flanked by Dr Estella Ngoma Hassan- analysts and economics lecturer at the Business School of the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), Ms Ali mentioned products that contributed to the decrease as fish items (0.5 per cent), edible cooking oil (31.8 per cent) and green cooking banana (3.3 per cent).
Ms Salma informed journalists that during March 2023 the monthly headline inflation rate decreased to 0.09 per cent compared to 0.54 per cent recorded for the month ended February 2023 and that the monthly Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation rate for the month ended March 2023 decreased to 0.67 per cent compared to 0.97 percent for the month ended February this year.
The products that contributed to the monthly inflation rate to decrease are Jasmin rice (0.8 per cent), wheat flour (3.4 per cent), maize flour (0.5 per cent), green cooking banana (16.7 per cent), white sugar (0.9 per cent) and diesel (0.3 per cent).
