Tanzania suspends food exports to curb inflation

Tanzania said on Tuesday it has halted food exports to tame rising prices of staple goods, which have pushed the east African country's inflation rate higher for six straight months.

Tanzania's inflation rate rose to 8.6 percent in April from 8.0 percent in March on higher food and fuel prices, mirroring rising inflation across east Africa.

"We will not allow the export of food, especially maize, between April, May and June," Tanzania's Agriculture Minister Jumanne Maghembe told state-run television channel TBC1.

He said the government has imposed export curbs because of worries about rising food prices and domestic supply shortages.

The price of food, which carries the biggest weight in the basket of goods and services used to measure domestic inflation, is a sensitive issue in Tanzania where the majority of the people live in poverty.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday the inflation rate could start to decline if the government takes policy measures to curb the increase, but analysts see it staying high.

The government said it has directed officials at the country's strategic grain reserve to start selling maize to markets in urban centres whenever shortages of the country's staple food occur. Reuters