The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has said that in February this year the value of export of goods and services increased to Tshs.2.04 trillion ($890 million) from Tshs.1.6 trillion ($698 million) in the preceding month.
According to the BoT`s monthly economic review (MER) for March, an increase is owing to good performance recorded in export of goods particularly gold.
The review said likewise, the value of exports of goods and services increased to Tshs.19.6 trillion ($8.5 billion) in the year ending February 2019 from Tshs.19.3 trillion ($8.4 billion) in the corresponding period in 2018, owing to good performance recorded from non-traditional exports and services receipt.
It added that the value of traditional goods exports increased to 161.9 billion ($70.4 million) in February 2019 from Tshs.88.3 billion ($38.4 million) in January 2019 with cotton and tobacco recording the highest growths.
According to the review, the value of coffee and tea exports increased due to increase in volume, while that of other traditional goods exports was on account of both volume and unit price in global market.
The price movements of traditional exports were broadly consistent with the developments in world markets prices, the review said.
Meanwhile, on an annual basis, the value of traditional goods exports decreased to Tshs1.3 trillion ($601.8 million) in February 2019 from Tshs.2.4 trillion ($1.07 billion) in February 2018.
Export value of non-traditional exports increased to Tshs.1 trillion ($438 million) from Tshs.622 billion ($270.8 million) in January 2019, with all sub-categories recording growth.
Significant performance was registered in manufactured goods and gold exports.
The good performance in gold exports, which accounts for about 52 per cent of total non traditional exports, was explained by the increase in volume and world market prices.
Similarly, the annual export value of non-traditional exports increased to Tshs.7.9 trillion ($3.4 million) in the year ending February 2019 from Tshs.7.1 trillion ($3.09 billion) in February 2018, driven by manufacturing , gold, re-exports and exports.
In the meantime, foreign exchange receipt from services was Tshs.400.6 billion ($172.4 million) in February 2019 compared to Tshs429.4 billion ($186.7 million) in the preceding month, largely driven by travel receipts.
Annually, the receipt from services increased to Tshs.9.3 trillion ($4.07 billion) from Tshs.8.8 trillion ($3.8 billion) in the year ending February 2018, on account of travel and transport receipts.
Receipts from transport related activities increased due to growth in volume of transit goods to-and-from neighboring countries particularly Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi.
Source: The Exchange
