Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Tanzania’s shilling appreciated against the dollar as commercial banks sold the U.S. currency.

The currency of East Africa’s second-biggest economy gained as much as 0.6 percent at 1,685.5, and traded up 0.4 percent at 1,688.7 per dollar by 12 p.m. in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital.

“Some commercial banks have been offloading dollars they bought last week from the market,” Alex Ngusaru, head treasurer at Cooperative Rural Development Bank Plc, said by phone today from Dar es Salaam. “There was a lot of supply of dollars from coffee and tobacco exporters last week.”

Tanzania is Africa’s fourth-largest producer of coffee after Ethiopia, Uganda and the Ivory Coast, according to the International Coffee Organization.

--Editors: Ana Monteiro, Alex Nicholson

To contact the reporter on this story: David Malingha Doya in Dar es Salaam via Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net