A rise in gold, coffee and cotton exports, as well as tourist arrivals has boosted the value of Tanzania’s goods and services exports to $8,594.5 million in the year ending July 2019, from $8,534.6 million in the year ending July 2018, according to Bank of Tanzania economic monthly review for August.

BoT notes that non-traditional goods accounted for almost 80 per cent of goods exported at $3,689.2 million from $3,100.7 million in the corresponding period last year. The growth was driven by gold and manufactured goods exports. The value of gold, which accounted for more than 40 per cent of non-traditional exports, rose by 23.3 per cent to $1,783.8 million.

At the same time, traditional exports fell to $499.2 million from $1,113.9 million in the corresponding period in 2018, as all exports of traditional goods declined except coffee and cotton.

The BoT said it has put measures in place to improve the value chain of exports in order to achieve better results.

Foreign exchange earnings from exports of services, accounted for 46.2 per cent of total exports, having risen to $3,987.3 million in the year ending July 2019, from $3,898.5 million previously. The rise was driven by receipts from travel, mainly from tourism, which rose by 3.6 per cent to $2,412 million as tourist arrivals rose.

Imports of goods and services also rose to $10,473.5 million from $9,896.5 million in the year ending July 2018, with the import bills for goods rising by 9.4 per cent to $8,446.6. According to BoT this was driven by capital goods due to ongoing public and private sector investments in infrastructure projects. Oil imports which accounted for 23.1 per cent of goods import rose by 8.8 per cent to $1,953.9 million on account of price growth.