Tanzania becomes a middle income country

Tanzania is now officially a middle income country after the World Bank published a reviewed classification of world economies.

The East African nation enters into that bracket of middle-income countries with a GNI per capita of between $1,006 (£806) and $3,955 - a rough measure of each person's annual national income.

Last year, Tanzania’s economy grew by 6.8% in 2019 and 7% in 2018, one of the fastest growth rates in the world.

According to analysts, this rate of growth has been going for over a decade, and continued after the current President John Magufuli took office.

The country is the second largest economy in the region and now joins Kenya as the second East Africa Community member state in the middle-income bracket.

Apart from lifting millions out of poverty, the real benefit or even loss of graduating from least developed country status should become apparent for Tanzania in coming days.