On 10 January 2018 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the final review of Tanzania’s economic performance under a program supported by the Policy Support Instrument (PSI).

Recently Tanzania’s economy has had a mixed performance and although GDP growth is high there have been signs of a weakening of economic activity. Tax revenue collections have been lower than expected. There are also short term risks from slow implementation of the budget, a difficult business environment and concerns in the private sector about the enforcement of rules by the government.

The IMF report suggests that sustained reforms will be needed to permit strong private sector-led growth. In view of the recent lower tax collections additional domestic revenue will need to be mobilized by tax policy and administration reforms. The functioning of the value added tax (VAT) refunds system must also be improved.