DAR ES SALAAM: EXPORT of goods and services have improved, rising by 15.5 per cent to 13,544.3 million US dollars in the year ending October from the level recorded in the preceding year.
According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review for November, the performance was largely contributed by non-traditional exports, mainly manufactured goods, minerals-mainly gold and horticultural products.
The export of non-traditional goods grew by 5.5 per cent with the value of gold exports rising to 2,987.7 million US dollars, up from 2,813.9 million US dollars in the year ending October on account of both volume and price effects.
The export of traditional goods edged up to 910.3 million US dollars from 742.7 million US dollars, largely driven by exports of coffee and tobacco.
On a monthly basis, the export of traditional goods almost doubled to 120.9 million US dollars, higher than 64.5 million US dollars recorded in a similar month last year.
Conversely, non-traditional exports fell to 532.2 million US dollars from 552 million US dollars.
The external shocks continued to exert pressure on the current account position, foreign reserves and exchange rate.
The deficit in the current account balance remained large, but narrowed to USD 3,265.5 million in the year ending October 2023, compared with USD 4,990.1 million in the preceding year.
The outturn was on account of increased seasonal earnings from tourism activities and traditional exports.
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The service receipts increased to 5,838.8 million US dollars in the year ending October from 4,555.1 million US dollars in the corresponding period last year, driven by travel (tourism) and transportation receipts.
The surge in travel receipts reflects the tourism sector rebound, as tourist arrivals rose to 1,750,557, a record high from 1,381,881 in the year 2021 to October 2022.
On a monthly basis, the service receipts were 550 million US dollars compared with 460.4 million US dollars in October last year.
On foreign exchange reserves, the stock was 4,615 million US dollars compared with 4,637.2 million US dollars at the end of October last year.
Despite the decrease, reserves were adequate to cover about 4.0 months of projected imports of goods and services.
