The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Monthly Economic Review for November 2016 shows that the value of export of goods and services in the year ending October 2016, increased by +7.5%.
Overall exports reached USD9,479m, compared to USD8,821.6m in the year ending October 2015.
The improvement was mainly driven by traditional commodities, gold and travel receipts.
Travel maintained the leading position among foreign currency earners, before manufactured goods, gold, and traditional exports, with USD2,226.2m worth of exports in the year ending October 2016, showing a year-on-year increase of +10.75%.
The improvement is largely due to increases in the number of tourist arrivals and volume of transit goods to neighboring countries.
Gold exports increased by +18.1% to USD1,394.2m as a result of increase in export volume and recovery in prices in the world market.
Among Tanzania’s traditional exports, increases were seen in tobacco (USD327.5m, +6.54%), cotton (USD52.1m, +71.38%), tea (USD46.4m, +6.18%), and cloves (USD54.3m, +175.63%).
There was also a notable rise in export value of other minerals (excluding gold), oil seeds, cereals, cocoa, wood products, and hides and skins.
World Commodities Prices
In October 2016, prices of crude oil and white petroleum products went up, reaching USD49.3 per barrel and USD566.29 per ton respectively, largely due to a fall in crude oil inventories in the US and increased optimism that OPEC will cut down production.
The price of gold fell to 1,266.28 in October 2016 from USD1326.61 in September due to rise in speculation that the Federal Reserve of America will increase interest rate which in turn would reduce the demand for gold as a safe investment.
