Tanzania’s Economic Growth Accelerated to 6.7% in Second Quarter

 Tanzania’s economic growth accelerated to 6.7 percent in the second quarter as farming and manufacturing output increased.

The figure was provided to reporters in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, by Morrice Nyattega Oyuke, a director at the National Bureau of Statistics. The economy grew an annual 5.8 percent in the first quarter, the bureau said on Sept. 9.

Agricultural output increased an annual 3.5 percent and manufacturing grew 6.2 percent, the agency said. The first- quarter rates were 2.6 percent and 4.8 percent respectively.

Tanzania vies with Mali to be Africa’s third-biggest producer of gold after Ghana and South Africa and has the world’s only known deposit of tanzanite, a gem. The government aims to increase output by 8 percent a year through 2016 in the nation of about 40 million people.

Growth may accelerate in the last quarter as the government begins disbursing funds after parliament approved its budget, Haji Semboja of the University of Dar es Salaam said in an interview. Output has also been capped by a drought that drained Tanzania’s main hydropower dams and led to power rationing.

--Editors: Ben Holland, Heather Langan.

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

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