The latest Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Monthly Economic Review of May 2020 shows that in the year ending April 2020 the value of exports of goods and services increased to USD 9,982.8 million from USD 8,618.4 million in the corresponding period in April 2019, largely owing to the increase in goods exports.
On a monthly basis, exports also increased to USD 634.3 million in April 2020 from USD 605.7 million in April 2019, driven by goods exports.
Exports of goods increased by 30.3% to USD 5,897.0 million in the year ending April 2020, driven by both traditional and no-traditional exports.
Traditional exports almost doubled to USD 1,032.4 million, from USD 553.7 million in the corresponding period in 2019, driven by cashew nuts, cotton, cloves and sisal exports.
Cashew nuts and sisal exports rose on account of increase in volume and price, while exports of cotton and cloves rose due to volume effect. Conversely, exports of coffee, tea and tobacco declined.
On a month-to-month basis, traditional goods exports amounted to USD 33.3 million in April 2020 compared with USD 17.1 million in April 2019. The increase manifested in coffee, cotton, tobacco and sisal exports.
Exports of non-traditional goods amounted to USD 4,328.5 million in the year ending April 2020 compared with USD 3,561.1 million in the corresponding period in 2019. Exports of gold increased by 44.5% to USD 2,436.5 million, and accounted for 56.3% of exports of non-traditional goods.
The increase was on account of volume and price in the world market. During April 2020, exports of gold was USD 225.6 million compared with 113.1 million in April 2019, attributable to increase in prices in the world market.
Exports of other minerals amounted to USD 89.9 million compared with USD 2.2 million, owing to resumption of export of mineral concentrates.
Service Receipts
Service receipts amounted to USD 4,085.8 million in the year ending April 2020, almost unchanged from USD 4,092.1 million recorded in the year ending April 2019, and accounted for 41.4% of total exports of goods and services.
Travel receipts, which are mainly tourism, declined by 2.3% to USD 2,447.4 million, owing to the suspension of passenger flights to limit the spread of COVID-19. The impact of the pandemic disease was more noticeable in April 2020 than in the preceding month, as travel receipts fell by 92.5% to USD 12.3 million from April 2019.
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