Forex trading by Tanzanian banks declined to $396.4 million in the quarter ending September 2017, from $408.3 million during the corresponding quarter in 2016. 

Bank of Tanzania’s Monthly Economic Review for October 2017 shows that the Central Bank purchased $132.6 million in a bid to stabilise the market.

The report also notes that government expenditure amounted to Tsh1,699.3 billion ($0.75 million) in September, out of which recurrent spending stood at Tsh1,115.8 billion ($754.1 million).

Domestic revenue collections amounted to Tsh1,486.6 billion ($659.7 million), out of which, Tsh1,448.9 billion ($643 million) were realised by the central government.

Tax revenue rose by 2.4 per cent to Tsh1,315.7 billion ($583.8 million) in September 2017. Local government collections from own sources increased to Tsh37.7 billion ($16.73 million) from Tsh33.9 billion ($15.043 million) posted in September 2016.

During the year ending September 2017, the service account balance improved to a surplus of $1,773.0 million, compared with $164.5 million recorded in the year ending September 2016. 

The increase was largely driven by the rise in inflows in the form of grants and external borrowing, coupled with narrowing of current account deficit. 

Services account

The services account recorded a surplus of $1.7 billion compared with a surplus of $1.1 billion in the year ending September 2016, largely on account of a decline in services payments.

Earnings from services amounted to $3.7 billion up from $3.5 billion due to an increase in travel and transport receipts. 

Earnings from travel, which were dominated by tourism, increased to $2.1 billion from $1.98 billion in the corresponding period in 2016, as the number of visitor arrivals rose. 

Transport receipts increased by 4.8 per cent to $1.1 billion in the year ending September 2017. 

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