Exports of goods, services soared 15pc last year: BoT
The Bank of Tanzania headquarters. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
The rise in service receipts and volume of non-traditional goods exports was linked to the trend.
Dar es Salaam. Exports of goods and services rose by 15. 8 percent from $8.3 billion to $9.712 billion during the year ending December 2019, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review for January 2020 shows.
According to the review published yesterday, export performance was attributed to the rise in service receipts and the value of non-traditional goods exports.
Non-traditional goods worth $4.236 billion were exported in 2019 compared with $3.209 billion in the preceding year.
“The value of all non-traditional goods exports increased, except re-exports,” says the review.
Gold exports, which accounted for 52.3 percent of non-traditional goods exports, increased by 45.5 per cent to $2.2billion from $1.5 billion, driven by both volume and price in the world market.
Manufactured goods exports grew by 24.0 percent to $ 984.9 million from $693 million, mainly driven by sisal yarn and twine, iron and steel products, glass and glassware, manufactured tobacco and fertilizers.
Driven by travel and transport receipts, earnings from services increased to $4.139 billion in 2019 from $4.014 billion in 2018.
Travel proceeds, mostly from tourism related activities, grew by 3.2 per cent, to $2.526 billion in last year and accounted for 61.0 per cent of services receipts. The growth was attributed to increase in the number of tourist arrivals, according to the BoT review.
The value of traditional exports of cashew nuts, cotton and coffee rose to $829.9 million last year from $772.1 million the previous year. Also the increase in the value of cashew nuts exported was on account of higher volume that outweighs the impact of price decline in the world market.
Likewise, improvement in coffee and cotton exports was due to increase in volume following good weather during the crop season.
Conversely, the value of cloves exports decreased owing to price decline in the world market, while for tobacco it was on account of low export volume and price. Price movements of traditional goods exports were broadly in line with developments in the world market prices.
