IMPORTS of goods and services declined to 16,054.3 million US dollars in the period ending January this year from 16,784.6 million US dollars in the previous year, driven by a decrease in goods import, particularly white petroleum products.

According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review for February the imports of machinery, industrial transport equipment motor cars, and wheat grain increased, though not sufficient to offset the decline of the white petroleum products.

Import of refined white petroleum products declined to 2,703.1 million US dollars from 3,363.7 million US dollars in the previous year, on account of price effect.

On monthly basis, goods import was 1,058 million US dollars compared with 1,033.3 million US dollars in January last year.

Services payments decreased to 2,300.7 million US dollars from 2,516 million US dollars in the year to January due to a fall in freight payments resulting from the decrease in goods import. On a month- to-month basis, service payments fell by 29.1 per cent to 187.2 million US dollars in January this year consistent with a decline in import bills.

The primary income account recorded a deficit of 1,498.1 million US dollars higher compared to 1,268.7 million US dollars in the period to January last year largely due to higher interest payments.

On a monthly basis, the deficit in the primary account amounted to 71.3 million US dollars lower than 97.7 million US dollars in January last year.

The secondary income account balance improved to a surplus of 672.6 million US dollars in the period ending January this year compared with a surplus of 591.6 million US dollars in the previous year, explained by a rise in personal transfers.

On a monthly basis, the secondary income account balance had a surplus of 40.4 million US dollars lower than 43.6 million US dollars in January last year.