Business & Markets · Credit to private sector · Tanzania
Tanzania’s credit to private sector rose to 18.4% of GDP in 2025.
18.4% of GDP
2025
Up 1.8 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
18.4% of GDP
What it is. This measure adds up the loans and other financial claims that banks and other financial institutions hold on private firms and households in Tanzania, then divides the total by a year of national output. It is a stock of outstanding credit, so it rises when lending grows faster than the economy and falls when GDP outpaces lending. It leaves out money raised through equity, informal lenders and borrowing by firms directly from abroad.
Neither way is good in itself. A higher share means banks reach more firms and households, and it also means more private debt to service. A lower share means less borrowing, whether from caution or from limited access to finance, so the measure carries no built-in verdict. The latest figure is 18.4% of GDP for 2025, up from 16.7% of GDP a year earlier, a rise of 1.8 percentage points. Since 2016 the low was 12.4% of GDP in 2020. The 2025 reading is also the highest in that span.
Why it matters. For Tanzanian firms and households, a share of 18.4% of GDP means more loans for working capital, equipment and housing than at the 2020 low of 12.4% of GDP. Lenders are carrying a larger book of private loans against the same economy, so repayment performance is the thing to watch as the share climbs. For the state, a deeper credit market widens the base for investment financed outside the budget.
| Period | Credit to private sector · Tanzania |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 13.7% of GDP |
| 2017 | 13.1% of GDP |
| 2018 | 12.7% of GDP |
| 2019 | 12.6% of GDP |
| 2020 | 12.4% of GDP |
| 2021 | 13% of GDP |
| 2022 | 15.2% of GDP |
| 2023 | 16.4% of GDP |
| 2024 | 16.7% of GDP |
| 2025 | 18.4% of GDP |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Credit to private sector, Tanzania, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/business/private-sector-credit/tanzania
Data insights · Worked out from the published figures
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Working this out from the published figures…
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Methodology
Domestic credit to the private sector as a share of GDP. Unit: % of GDP.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series FS.AST.PRVT.GD.ZS), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.