Impact of Interest Rate on Household Consumption in Tanzania

Abstract

This study seeks to determine the exact impact of interest rate on household consumption in Tanzania and identify the direction of causality between the variables. Although there have been few studies which explore the issue of interest rate and consumption, their method, time scope and geographical location has been different. This study aim to examine the relationship between interest rate on deposit and household expenditure in Tanzania using the annual time series data from the period 1990–2017 and employing Dynamic Ordinary Least Square (DOLS) and Granger causality test for testing causal relationship between  the variables. The result revealed that there is a negative relationship between interest rate on deposit and consumption for the Tanzania. Additionally, it is observed from the estimate results that interest rate had an insignificant effect on consumption. Furthermore, the granger causality test results have shown that there is bidirectional causal relationship between interest rate and consumption. Furthermore, the result also shows that income and consumption are positively related and statistical significant at 5%. In addition, the findings supported Keynesian's Absolute Income hypothesis which emphasis consumption being a positive function of disposable income. The study recommends that there is the need for government to take urgent steps to implement policies like poverty reduction strategies, agriculture policy and Five Years Development Plans in order to improve the income base of most of households.