HomeAfricaMineral exports ease pressure on Tanzaniaâ?s foreign earnings

Mineral exports ease pressure on Tanzaniaâ?s foreign earnings

 Tanzaniaâ?s earnings from mineral exports last year amounted to US$1,114.8 million, compared to US$995.5 million recorded in 2008, owing to an increase in sales of gold and other minerals, according to a new report of the Bank of Tanzania.

Of the amount, according to the report, gold exports accounted for US$1,076.1 mi llion, compared to US$932.4 million the previous year, largely due to a rise in both gold prices in the world market and export volumes.

During the year to December 2009, gold prices increased by 11.6 percent to US$97 2.7 per troy ounce. Meanwhile, export volumes of gold went up to 34.0 tons from 32.3 tons recorded the previous year.

On the overall exports performance, the report indicates that during 2009, expor t of goods went down by 2.0 percent to US$2,634 million, largely due to a decrease in manufactured exports.

On an annual basis, gold and manufactured goods continued to account for a large share of total exports of goods, accounting for 40.9 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively.

During the year, the value of traditional exports went up by 12.5 percent to US$ 470.8 million compared to the level recorded in 2008.

â?This development is largely due to an increase in the export volumes of coffe e, cotton, cashew nuts and cloves which resulted from favourable weather condition, timely accessibility of agricultural inputs and extension ser vices,â? the central bank said in the report.

On the other hand, improvement was also recorded in tobacco and tea exports foll owing an increase in export unit prices.

Regarding non-traditional exports, the report said they amounted to US$2,163.2 m illion compared to US$2,270.6 million recorded in 2008, largely due to a decline in manufactured goods, re-export and fish products.

Exports of manufactured goods brought in US$497.6 million compared to US$662.3 m illion recorded during 2008. The decline was partly attributed to the drop in demand for the products in neighbouring countri es following the global financial crisis.

Likewise, the value of re-exports mainly wheat, tyres, vehicles and petroleum pr oducts went down to US$78.9 million from UA$160.3 million recorded during 2008.

In the meantime, receipts from services export amounted to US$2,059.6 million, h igher than US$1,998.8 million recorded in 2008, following an increase in receipts from other business and government services.

According to the report, receipts from other business services in 2009 were US$3 27.0million, 40.0 percent higher than the amount recorded in the preceding year.

Such business services comprised legal, accounting, consultancy, research and de velopment and other technical and professional services.

On the other hand, travel – which accounted for about 60 percent of total servic es receipt – brought in US$1,260.1 million compared to US$1,288. 7 million recorded in 2008.

Available statistics show that from January to November 2009, the number of inte rnational arrivals was 697,131, being 10.6 percent lower than the number of arrivals recorded in the corresponding period in 2008.

â?The dismal performance is partly attributed to the global financial crisis, w hich has affected major sources of tourists to Tanzania,â? the report said.

However, the Bank of Tanzania anticipates improvement in travel receipts given t he recovery of major economies from the financial crisis and concerted efforts by the government and other stakeholders in promoting Tanzania as a unique tourist destination in emerging markets.

On the imports side, the report shows that during 2009, the value of goods broug ht into the country was US$5,775.7 million compared to US$6,483.4 million recorded in 2008. This development was largely due to a significant drop in imports of intermediate goods particularly oil products

Oil imports declined in value by 28.9 percent to US$1,307.5 million due to a fal l in the average prices of oil products in the world market.

Importation of consumer goods was US$1,392.1 million, 8.5 percent higher than th e value imported in the preceding year, due to an increase in the value of food and foodstuffs as well as other consumer goods. Also, importation of other consumer goods that included pharmaceutical products, plastic items and paper products went up by 5.8 percent to US$1,050.2 million.

For the year ended December 2009, Tanzaniaâ?s overall balance of payments remai ned positive, recording a surplus of US$428.9 million from a surplus of US$148.2 million the previous year.

Tanzaniaâ?s gross official reserves also increased to US$3,551.3 million by end December 2009 from US$3,543.8 million recorded at end of November 2009, partly due to release of the second tranche of ESF amounting to US$63.4 million in December 2009 by the IMF.

”The level of reserves for December 2009 was enough to cover about 5.7 months o f import of goods and services,â? the report added.

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