Bank of Tanzania’s (BOT) latest Monthly economic review indicates that in August 2019 gold exports picked up by 25.1% to US$ 1.92 billion.. More than half of the exports were from non-traditional goods, which augurs well for the country. In absolute terms, the value of non-traditional exports was close to US$ 4 billion in the year ending August 2019 as against US$ 3.3 billion a year ago. The increase was largely driven by minerals (particularly gold), and manufactured goods. The increase in the export of manufactured goods manifested mostly in processed coffee, yarn and twine, iron and steel, and fertilizers. Services receipts aggregated to US$ 3.9 billion in the year ending August 2019 compared with US$ 3.9 billion in the year ending August 2018 and accounted for 44.7 percent of total exports.
Much of the increase in export earnings were on account of higher travel receipts. The value of traditional goods exports dropped by 55.0%, year-on-year basis, to US$508.8 million in the year ending August 2019. Except for coffee, the rest of the traditional export items registered a decline. Good weather conditions and higher volume led to the growth in export earnings in coffee. The value of export earnings from cashew nuts declined due to a fall in both volume and unit prices in the world market. The value of cloves, tobacco and sisal export also registered a decline on account of volume. However, the volume of tea exports picked up. But the crash in prices in the world market shaved off the export realization from this crop. Cloves also did not perform well in the export front mainly due to a drop in production. For the year ending August 2019, the overall export of goods and services improved slightly to US$ 8.8 billion from US$ 8.7 billion in the year ending August 2018.
