Tanzania at the Turn of the Century : From Reforms to Sustained Growth and Poverty Reduction

The study builds on lessons from Tanzania's development experience of the past four decades, with emphasis on the period following the 1996 Country Economic Memorandum, which focused on the challenge of reforms, in particular the impact of reforms on growth, incomes, and welfare in the country. The study assesses Tanzania's current development status against the country's ambition, since independence, to rid the nation of three archenemies: poverty, ignorance, and disease. Structural transformation has been extremely limited, with agriculture still dominating the economy, a non-diversified economy that hampers flexibility to withstand shock occurrences. Nonetheless, the country intensified macroeconomic policy reforms, significantly stabilizing the economy, with falling inflation levels, climbing foreign exchange reserves, and an overall fiscal balance. But the main factors identified behind the slow development progress, are primarily inadequate capital accumulation, and productivity growth; poor support for the transformation of agriculture; disrupted progress in building human capital; and, delayed demographic transition. However, the steady progress in reorienting its economy to a market-based operation, is creating space for exploiting the large potential of private sector initiative. It is emphasized that growth will only be sustainable, if firmly rooted in exploiting the domestic resource base, international competitiveness, and an aggressive pursuit of new export opportunities.