Tanzania Gold Exports Up 30% in Year Through June, Bank Says

Gold exports from Tanzania, which vies with Mali to be Africa’s third-biggest producer of the precious metal, climbed 30 percent $2.3 billion in the year through June, the Bank of Tanzania said.

The current account deficit, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, widened to $4.3 billion in the year to June 30 from $2.3 billion in the same period a year earlier as oil imports surged, the Dar es Salaam-based central bank said in a report e-mailed today.

Gold shipments climbed 3 percent to 38.4 metric tons from a year earlier, the bank said. The value of gold exports increased “largely due to a rise in the world market price by 21.9 percent,” it said.

Sales of the metal helped increase the country’s exports 14 percent to $8 billion against imports of $13 billion. The import bill increased 30 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to the bank.

The external debt of East Africa’s second-biggest economy, after Kenya, stood at $10.3 billion at the end of June, up $386 million from the previous month. The country’s foreign-exchange reserves were $3.8 billion, sufficient to cover four months of imports, the bank said.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Malingha Doya in Dar es Salaam at dmalingha@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net