INCREASE in the volume and price cloves contributed immensely to the rise of Zanzibar exports value for the year ended July as compared to the corresponding period.
During the period, the value of cloves exports shoot to 60.2 million US dollars compared to only 20 million US dollars of the previous year.
The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly economic review shows that the volume of cloves exported increased to 5.4 thousand tonnes in the period under review as compared with 2.2 thousand tonnes in 2013.
Similarly, clove export price increased to 11,116.6 US dollars per tonne from 9,395.5 US dollars per tonne in the other period.
The outstanding performance of cloves pushed up the value of export of goods and services to 201.9 million US dollars compared to 190.6 million US dollars in the previous year. The value of goods exported rose to 79.7 million US dollars from 39.4 million US dollars.
In the meantime, the value of goods and services imports increased by 15.2 per cent to 275.6 million US dollars, where goods imports amounted to 261.9 million US dollars, up from 181.9 million US dollars in 2013.
The increase in the value of goods imports was mainly associated with a rise in the value of capital and consumer goods imports.
Also, during the period under review, current account recorded a deficit of 19.8 million US dollars, compared to a surplus of 42.2 million US dollars recorded in the year ending July 2013.
This outturn was mainly attributed to increase in imports of goods and services by 15.2 per cent, coupled with a decline in current transfer inflows by 42.7 per cent.
In another development, Zanzibar’s government budgetary operations recorded an overall deficit of 17bn/-, which was financed by domestic and external sources.
Total resources during the month amounted to 27bn/-, out of which 88.9 percent was domestic revenue and the balance was grants. Total expenditure during the month amounted to 48.2bn/-.
Revenue collection during July amounted to 24bn/-, 13.3 per cent below the target, with tax revenue amounting to 22.4bn/-. The tax revenue was 13.2 per cent below the target mainly on account of decrease in taxable imports.
