Economic outlook brighter

A combination of sound macroeconomic policies, fresh funding from multilateral organisations and donors, recent favourable weather and better than expected agricultural performance mean that Tanzania's real growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should increase from 3.8 percent in 1998 to 4.4 percent for 1999 and 5.2 percent in the year 2000, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has predicted. There remained food security concerns in some parts of the country due to adverse weather conditions earlier this year, but food crop production should begin to recover in the next few months, the report added. The EIU reported that the greatest challenge the government faces is to convince voters that World Bank- and IMF-inspired structural reforms, which have been heavily criticised for hitting poorer sections of the population, "will begin to deliver tangible improvements in living standards and increases in disposable income."