Why Tanzania’s statistics look fishy (Economist)

From the article:

"Yet if one looks beyond the indicators flagged by the imf last year, the picture is still alarming. Foreign direct investment has almost halved since 2013. Exports and imports both fell between 2012 and 2018. Imports of machinery and construction equipment fell between 2015 and 2018, despite claims of booming construction. 'The growth numbers are out of line with almost everything else we are seeing out of Tanzania,' says Justin Sandefur of the Centre for Global Development, a think-tank.

Tanzania’s recent growth ought to be evident in ordinary lives. When incomes rise, people buy more beer; yet revenue for Tanzania’s biggest brewer fell in 2018 and 2019. According to door-to-door surveys done in 2012 and 2018, the share of Tanzanians who are extremely poor, 49%, did not change at all over the period. That is almost unheard of. And because Tanzania’s population is growing, the number of extremely poor people has increased by about 4.5m."