DAR ES SALAAM, Dec. 30 -- ECONOMY Data did not make headlines in Tanzania this year. There were no ribbon cuttings. No loud announcements. Yet behind many of the biggest economic decisions of the year, data was present. Consistently. Often unnoticed. Early in the year, fuel prices became a daily conversation.

Motorists complained. Businesses adjusted transport budgets. What many people did not see was how pricing decisions increasingly relied on data models rather than instinct.

Global oil prices, exchange rate movements, shipping costs and local tax structures were tracked almost daily.

Regulators and oil marketers monitored trends through dashboards that compared pump prices with global benchmarks. Small changes at the global level w...