Tanzania rebases economy, 2015 GDP now 3.8 per cent larger

Tanzania Currency. [Photo: Courtesy]

Tanzania has changed the base year it uses to calculate economic output to 2015, and data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed its economy was 3.8 per cent larger in that year.

The bureau said in a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday it had changed the base year from 2007 previously, and calculated the economy’s size in 2015 at Sh94.3 trillion (USD40.56 billion) at current prices, up from Sh90.8 trillion (USD39.05 billion) using 2007 as the base year.

Tanzania last rebased its economy in 2014.

The statistics office said that based on constant 2015 prices, Tanzania’s gross domestic product was Sh107.67 trillion in 2017. It did not calculate the impact the rebasing had on the figure.

In March 2018, the statistics office put Tanzania’s 2017 gross domestic product at Sh50.53 trillion using 2007 constant prices.

Farming remains Tanzania’s economic mainstay, industry and construction and services are the other key sectors.

According to the World Bank, a new base year should represent normal operation of the economy — it should be a year without major shocks or distortions.

(USD1 = 2,325.00 Tanzanian shillings).