Browsing: Economic Growth in Tanzania

tanznaian shillings

Central Bank of Tanzania

Tanzania Central Bank (Bank of Tanzania) has released it’s monthly economic review bulletin for September 2020, earlier this week, which displayed rather a good prospect for Tanzania’s economy.

The bulletin comes within the same week, when the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) affirmed that Tanzania’s economy will grow by 5.5 per cent in 2020, according to information from The Citizen.

Further, the team noted that—the bank’s accommodative monetary policy was being implemented in a fashion that macroeconomic indicator remained positive, despite the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the global economy.

However, the monthly economic review depicted inflation at a lower level, while exports and foreign exchange reserves remained rather adequate.

Inflation

The report showcased the headline inflation at a stabilized point, standing at 3.3 per cent in August 2020. On a comparison basis, inflation is at a much lower point—than 3.6 per cent in August …

Bank of Tanzania, situated in Dar es Salaam. Photo Source: Flickr - The Exchange
Earlier this week, several people forwarded me a link to a recent article published by The Economist, which makes the bold claim that Tanzania’s official economic statistics are bogus.
Among other things, the nameless author (a feature of The Economist is that it has no by-lines) claims that cement sales by the top two firms are “flat,” and bank lending to companies slumped. To quote the article directly:“If Tanzania’s economy grew by almost 7% in the fiscal year to the end of June 2019, why did tax revenue fall by 1%? And why has bank lending to companies slumped? Private data are bad, too. In 2019 sales at the biggest brewer fell by 5%. Sales of cement by the two biggest producers were almost flat. None of these things is likely if growth is storming ahead. The discrepancies are so large that it is hard to avoid the
tanzanias path to poverty reduction and pro poor growth 768x768 1

Tanzania’s Social Action Fund (TASAF), a poverty-reduction base will get a $562 million loan to support its second phase.

According to information from The Citizen, over $800 will be spent during the five years of implementing the phase, officially launched earlier today by Tanzania’s President John Magufuli.

Also, the information revealed that the rest of the amount will be sourced from various other development partners including the Opec Fund for International Development set to issue $50 million.

However, TASAF director-general Ladislaus Mwamanga, highlighted that the programme goals are set to empower poor households with funds, known as ‘Productive Social Safety Net’ with which they can conduct their income-generating activities.

The safety net which was initiated in 2000, had over 1.1 households in Tanzania with over 5.2 people enrolled in the programme.

During the launch, it was revealed that TASAF spent over $692 million in poverty alleviation programmes national wide.

Also, …