These are statistics related to the exports (fob) and Imports (cif) of goods and services, the trade balance, the interregional trade, the foreign current and capital accounts with and without grants, the intra - regional trade, the exchange rate, stock of foreign debt, debt service and the overall balance of payment.

Indicators of Convergence

At its 26th ordinary session held in Algiers in September 2002, the Assembly of Governors of the Association of African Central Banks (AACB) adopted the African Monetary Co-operation Programme (AMCP). The implementation of this Programme is expected to lead to the establishment of a single monetary zone with a common currency and a common Central Bank at the continental level, by the year 2021. In this regard, the following framework for macro-economic convergence was adopted:

• Harmonization of macroeconomic and statistical concepts;
• Observance of the underlisted convergence criteria by the year 2015:

Primary criteria:

• Overall budget deficit (excluding grants) / GDP ratio < 3%;
• Inflation rate < 3%;
• Reduction of Central Bank financing of budget deficit;
• External reserves 6 months of goods and services imports.

Secondary criteria:

• Elimination of domestic arrears and non-accumulation of new arrears;
• Tax revenue / GDP ratio 20%;
• Salary mass / total tax revenue ratio 35%;
• Maintaining of real exchange rate stability by each country;
• Public investments / tax revenue ratio 20%;
• Maintenance of positive real interest rate.

The African Monetary Cooperation Program (AMCP) Convergence Criteria

The available statistics indicate that Tanzania is converging towards the statistical benchmarks under the AMCP. The convincingly performing indicators include Inflation, the external reserve position (performed above the AMCP criteria), the Central Bank financing of the budget deficit, public investment to tax revenue ration , and domestic arrears. The achievements are in line with the recently recorded robust macroeconomic performance of the Tanzanian economy as reflected in real GDP growth, which grew by 6.8 percent in 2005 and price stability.

Tanzania is implementing exchange rate and interest rate policies that are in conformity with the internationally and AMCP recommended standpoints. The rates are both market determined. The real interest rate recorded negative rates of less than one and is expected to improve to realize positive rates as financial sector continues to strengthen. Exchange rate is freely floating with least interventions from the Central Bank to iron out unusual trends.

The Bank of Tanzania monetary policy stance is consistent with the objective of maintaining at “zero” level, the Central Bank financing of the budget deficit, intended to enforce disciplinary in government spending and encourage government to borrow from the private sector, but without crowding out other sectors of the economy.

The Bank of Tanzania receives monetary statistics reports from the deposit money banks, mainly the balance sheets, statutory minimum reserves reports, the report on foreign assets cover against foreign currency deposits, savings and lending interest rates and for some banks, specific information as it may be required for the purpose of giving further details on some items on the general reports or for purpose of giving projections. All this are consolidated to obtain Standardized Report  for Other Depository Corporations. This report is then combined with the Standardized Report for monetary authority to obtain the depository corporation survey. 

The public finance statistics are the statistics related to central government operations (i.e Total receipts, government expenditures and foreign aid). Under this category  information provided are those on Government Total Revenue (Fiscal receipts and Grants), Expenditure (Recurrent and Development), and Balances. The source of Public Finance Statistics is the Ministry of Finance/Treasury of the United Republic of Tanzania.