Writes Leo Odera Omolo.
The Central Bank of Tanzania has reported that the country’s revenue from gold exports is up by 19 per cent.
The bank says this in its monthly review from the year ending December 2010.The rise is attributed to increased output as well as global market prices.
Gold exports earned the country USD 1,467.3 million, up from USD 1,076 billion in 2009,as the commodity continued to outperform tourism as the biggest foreign exchange earner.
Tanzania, Africa’s fourth largest gold producer, depends mainly on tourism, mining and agriculture, and is increasingly attracting investors interests in telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, financial services and transport sectors.
Gold dominated Tanzania’s export earnings, accounting for 39.8 per cent of total goods, followed manufactured goods at 26.1 per cent.
According to the report, the prices of gold in the world market rose from USD 972.7 per troy ounce recorded in 2009 to an average of USD 1,244.7 per troy ounce in December 2010.
Financial analysts are now optimistic that the country will achieve its targeted economic growth of 7.2 per cent this year {2011} from an estimated 7 per cent last year.
The positive outlook on the economy is however, being tainted by inflationary fears. It s feared that rising food and fuel prices coupled with chronic energy shortage will push inflation rate to double digit level this year.
The country’s year on year inflation rate was up for the third successive month to 6.4 per cent in January from 5.6 per cent in December, last year according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Improved performance of non-traditional exports, the Bank Notes, was largely contributed by gold and manufactured goods lie papers, fertilizers and plastics.
Non-traditional exports rose from USD 2,446.1 million recorded in early January 2009 to USD 3,128.5 million. The value of manufactured goods, according to the BOT report was USD 693.9 million, being 90.3 per cent higher than the volume recorded in 2009.This development was largely associated with increased demand fro neighboring countries following recovery from global financial crisis.
The bank’s report shows rising value of traditional exports of about USD 558.9 million which is 16 per cent higher than the value recorded in 2009.This rise is attributed to both export volume and unit prices of tobacco and cashew nuts.
The increase in the export of tobacco was largely due to improved quality following proper farming practices coupled with accessibility of agricultural inputs.
In the semi autonomous Isles of Zanzibar, adds the bank’s report, export performance for goods and services for the year 2010 dropped from USD127.6 million posted in 2009 to US 120.1 million. This outcome was mainly on account of the decline in clove and manufactured goods exports.
Clove export decline from USD 14.6 million to 7.5 million, while manufactured goods exports declined from USD 5.0 million to USD 3.4 million.
ENDS