In 2016, the GDP of Tanzania grew by an average of 7.0%, the same as in 2015, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicates in its latest Economic Survey Publication.
The high GDP growth was due to increase in electricity generation, particularly natural gas based; increase in industrial production; improved transport services; and increase in enrollment following the Government’s policy to provide free primary education from January 2016.
In 2016, the economic activities that showed high growth rates include construction (+13.0%); information and communication (+13.0%); freight transport and storage (+11.8%); and mining and quarrying (+11.5%).
Agricultural economic activity showed some decline, growing at 2.1% in 2016 compared to 2.3% in 2015, due to lack of adequate rainfall in the 2015/16 agricultural season.
Tanzania’s annual GDP growth rate averaged 7% over the past 5 years, making it one of the 20 fastest growing economies in the world and beating the Sub-Saharan Africa average GDP growth rate of 4.4% during the same period.
The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted that in 2016 the country should have achieved an annual GDP growth of 7.2% thanks to favorable economic activity, while the World Bank (WB) estimated a growth of 6.8%.
The WB currently forecasts an annual GDP growth rate for Tanzania of 7.1% for 2017, 2018 and 2019.
However, in its ninth edition of the Tanzania Economic Update of April 2017, the Bank reminds that the economic performances and growth could be affected by wrong policies.
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