DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzania's economy is expected to expand at a slightly faster pace over the next two years after growing 6.9 percent in 2012, the World Bank said on Tuesday.
It said it expected inflation in east Africa's second largest economy to average 5-7 percent during the same period.
"Tanzania's economy is expected to grow at an average of 7 percent in the 2013/14 and 2014/15 fiscal years," the World Bank's lead economist in Tanzania, Jacques Morisset, told reporters in Dar es Salaam.
The World Bank's economic report on Tanzania, released on Tuesday, forecasts economic growth of 7 percent in 2013/14 and 7.3 percent in 2014/15.
Morisset said inflation was expected to fall to 5-7 percent during the same period, from 9.4 percent year-on-year in April.
The World Bank added that despite excitement over Tanzania's gas discoveries, economic growth is likely to be driven by five key sectors: communications, transport, construction, manufacturing and financial services.
"The boom in natural gas production may eventually result in an even higher rate of growth, but this will not occur for 7-10 years," said the World Bank.
Gas strikes off east Africa's seaboard have led to predictions the region could become the world's third-largest exporter of natural gas. Tanzania estimates it has more than 40 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable natural gas reserves.
The World Bank said inefficiency at Tanzania's main port in Dar es Salaam is causing it and six neighbouring countries up to $2.6 billion a year and warned that corruption is also making Tanzanian ports less competitive than some rivals.
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