South Africa Government Budget Balance (% of GDP)
The yearly gap between government spending and revenue across all levels of government, as a share of GDP.
−5.6%
Matches the latest releaseNot refreshed recently, awaiting the next release
Explore the full South Africa economy15 live indicators on one dashboard, from growth and prices to jobs, trade and public finances. Updated automatically from official sources.Government Budget Balance (% of GDP)
2000 to 2025
Source: IMF World Economic Outlook (GGXCNL_NGDP) · general government, % of GDP, annual, actual years only.
South Africa Government Budget Balance (% of GDP) in context
Worked out from the published series shown above.
In South Africa, the government budget balance rose by 0.1pp in 2025, from −5.7% in 2024.
It is the highest reading since 2022.
Over the past five years it has ranged from −9.6% in 2020 to −4.3% in 2022.
Its average since 2000 is −3.3%, and the latest reading is below that.
South Africa is 46th of 54 countries in our Government Budget Balance by Country ranking.
How this series is defined
Everything you need to check the figure against the source.
- Source
- IMF
- Series
- World
- Frequency
- Annual
- Unit
- %
- Seasonal adjustment
- Not applicable, annual data
- Latest observation
- 2025
- Revision status
- Latest published estimate, subject to revision
Negative means a deficit.
Data refreshed 2026-11-06. Figures are the latest published observations and can be revised.
More South Africa indicators
Latest readings. Open any one for its full history.
Rankings
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