Tanzanians may lack a savings culture at home, but it has now emerged that its citizens abroad annually send home $200 million.
Meanwhile, despite the recent global financial crisis, which took its toll on the country’s export earnings, foreign exchange-denominated deposits held with commercial banks by Tanzania residents amount to $1.5 billion — equivalent to two months’ worth of imports of goods and services.
Foreign exchange-denominated assets held by commercial banks add another half a month to this stock.
By the end of March, the country’s gross official foreign exchange reserves stood at $3,498.2 million, sufficient to cover 5.4 months of imports of goods and services.
Foreign exchange is crucial for Tanzania’s net import economy as it eases the dollar demand pressure at the inter-bank foreign market, where the shilling has lost over 5 per cent against the dollar since January, falling to Tsh1,367. Read more
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