Dar Es Salaam – Tanzania’s current account deficit, backed by strong exports of goods and services, shrunk to US$2.16 billion for the year ending in February, showing an improvement from US$2.91 billion in the same period last year.
The latest data from the Bank of Tanzania’s monthly economic review believes there is a trend towards improving performance in external sectors amid ongoing efforts to boost trade and diversify exports.
This performance is primarily due to increased revenues from exports of goods and services.
“Increasing revenue from exports of goods and services will not only help reduce the current account deficit, but will also help to more strongly demonstrate the important foreign exchange inflows to stabilize shillings, support foreign reserves and increase room for economic growth,” the bank said.
During the period, exports of goods and services increased by 18.8%, reaching USD 16.744 billion from USD 140.9 billion in the 2024 response period.
Growth was mainly caused by increased revenues from gold exports, rebounds in travel and tourism, increased agricultural exports, and a marked increase in transportation services.
According to the BOT report, exports of goods, which account for 58% of total exports of goods and services, rose to US$9.74 billion in the year ended February, up from US$7.76 billion in the same period in 2024.
This growth was greatly driven by the strong performance of key products such as gold, cashews, tobacco, coffee and horticultural products.
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Gold exports skyrocketed to USD 3.666 billion from US$31.1 billion the previous year. This is driven primarily by rising prices in the global market.
Traditional exports have also increased as cashews and coffee production increases.
A slowdown was observed in exports of manufactured products due to a decrease in exports of fertilizer, cement and flour.
The bot said each month that exports of goods rose to US$851.9 million in February, up from US$516.7 million in the same month last year, primarily caused by an increase in the shipments of gold and cashew nuts.
Service receipts rose from US$7.3 billion, up 10.6% from US$6.33 billion in the same period last year.
Much of the increase is registered in travel receipts, accounting for 56.3% of service receipts, linked to a surge in international arrivals from 1,881,823 in the response period last year to 2,169,208.
