Dollarisation in Tanzania

The use of U.S dollar as unit of account, medium of exchange and store of value in Tanzania has raised concerns among policy makers and the general public. This paper attempts to shed some light on the key stylized facts of dollarization in Tanzania and the EAC region. We show that compared to other EAC countries, financial dollarization in Tanzania is high, but steadily declining. We also present some evidence of creeping transaction dollarization particularly in the education sector, apartment rentals in some parts of major cities and a few imported consumer goods such as laptops and pay TV services. An empirical analysis of the determinants of financial dollarization is provided for the period 2001 to 2009. Based on the findings and drawing from the experience of other countries around the world, we propose some policy measures to deal with prevalence of dollarization in the country.