Tanzania to Reach 5% Growth Target, Central Bank Says

Tanzania to Reach 5% Growth Target, Central Bank Says

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Tanzania to Reach 5% Growth Target, Central Bank Says

By Sarah McGregor

July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Tanzania will probably achieve its economic growth target of 5 percent in 2009 as stimulus spending provides a boost to industries worst affected by the global financial crisis, Enos Bukuku, deputy governor of the Bank of Tanzania, said.

On June 10, Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete unveiled a 1.7 trillion shilling plan to help local companies and agricultural cooperatives weather a decline in global growth.

“It’s working and we are in a good position,” Bukuku said today in an interview following a presentation in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “No other country in the region has a similar rescue plan.”

The stimulus package will directly compensate exporters for losses, guarantee debt rescheduling and boost loans to farmers especially for seeds, fertilizer and tractors. It will be funded by the current budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010, of which about a third is being funded by outside donors. In May, the International Monetary Fund approved a $330 million loan for the country.

The east African nation’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $2.9 billion at the end of June, which gives “adequate comfort” from potential external shocks, Bukuku said.

Tanzania is Africa’s third-largest gold exporter after South Africa and Ghana. About 42 percent of the country’s exports are comprised of minerals, mainly gold, as well as diamonds and tanzanite.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at Smcgregor5@bloomberg.net
 
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