The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Monthly Economic Review for August 2016 shows that the value of export of goods and services in the year ending July 2016, increased by +7.5%.
Overall exports reached USD9,810.4m, compared to USD9,128.4m in the year ending July 2015. The improvement was mainly driven by an increase in travel (tourism) receipts, manufactured goods, and gold.
Travel maintained the leading position among foreign currency earners, before manufactured goods, gold, and traditional exports, with USD2,045.6m worth of exports in the year ending July 2016, showing a year-on-year increase of +1.8%.
Foreign exchange earnings from manufactured goods increased by 12.6% to USD1,448.7m in the year ending July 2016, with a notable improvement recorded in textile apparel, edible oil, plastic items, iron and steel products.
Gold exports increased by +7.7% to USD1,364.4m as a result of increase in export volume.
Among Tanzania’s traditional exports, increases were seen in coffee (USD151.8m, +1.3%), tea (USD48.8m, +10.2%), cloves (USD46.2m, +52.5%) and sisal (USD25.7m, +40.4%).
There was also a notable rise in export value of oil seeds, raw hides and skins, cocoa, cereals, and wood products.
World Commodities Prices
In July 2016, prices of coffee and cotton went up, thanks to higher global demand, reaching USD2.00 per kg of Robusta Coffee and USD3.79 of Arabica, and USD1.79 per kg of cotton.
Prices of crude oil and white petroleum products declined in July 2016, reaching USD44.13 per barrel, and USD528.89 per ton respectively, due to higher stocks of the products than expected and increase in Iraq exports.
The price of gold rose to 1,336.65 in July 2016 since investors demanded more gold due to the rise in business uncertainty and volatility in European equity markets following the Brexit.
