Tanzania reports a $637m trade surplus in 2017
Thursday June 29 2017
Pipes imported from Tanzania by the Kenyan government to replace the aged ones at Mzima Springs. PHOTO FILE | NATION
Tanzania has registered a $636.7 million surplus balance of payments for the year to April 2017, even as its exports and imports dropped.
According to the Bank of Tanzania, there was a significant recovery after the country experienced a deficit of $183.9 million in the same period in 2016.
The Bank’s monthly economic review said that the surplus resulted from the current account, which narrowed by half to a deficit of $1.6 billion due to a fall in imports.
In addition, the deficit in the current account dropped by 50.1 per cent from a level of $2.4 billion recorded in April 2016 to $ 1.6 billion this year, largely driven by a decline in the value and cost of imported goods.
“Although exports also declined, the impact was more than offset by imports. In the year ending April 2017, with the exception of food and foodstuff, all categories of goods imports declined,” said the report.
The annual import bill decreased to $7.8 billion in April 2017 from the $9.3 billion recorded in the year ending April 2016.
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Falling imports
This turnout was attributed to a decline in imports of non-food items such as oil, which comprises the largest share of goods imported.
According to the report the import bill for oil declined by 17 per cent to $1.9 billion as a result of a fall in oil prices in the world market.
Generally, the prices of oil in the world market went down by $13.8 to $561.2 per tonne, from $575 million per metric tonne in the year ending April 2016.
In addition to oil imports, transport equipment, other consumer goods, building and construction materials and machinery importation dropped.
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Whereas imported machinery dropped to $1,473.4 million from $1,917.4 million over the same period in 2016, the overall export value of goods and services fell to $8,753.3 million in the year ending April 2017, compared with $9,333.2 million in the corresponding period ending April 2016.
The decline was attributed to a fall in the export value of manufactured goods such as edible oil, textiles and of iron and steel products.
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“The decline is due to increased competition in regional markets where most of the manufactured goods are exported,” said the central bank.
Gold recorded an improvement from $1,194.2 million in April 2016 to $1.5 billion for the period ending April 2017.
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Travel increased slightly from $2.1 billion in April 2016 to 2.13 billion in April this year.
Traditional exports increased to $863.6 million from $739.7 million, mainly driven by cashew nuts, which contributed $341.1 million this year, compared with $185.9 million in the year ending April 2016. However, export of cloves, sisal, tea and tobacco declined.
“The decline in sisal, tea and tobacco was manifested in volumes while that of cloves contributed by both volume and price,” stated the Bank of Tanzania report.