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South Africa: Central government deficit (% of GDP)

Percent of GDP · 1911–2025 · 115 observations · cgovdef_GDP

2025
−4.53%percent of GDP
Change on 2024
+0.6 pointsfrom −5.11%
Average, 2016–2025
−5.21%10 years
Record high and low
1.00% (2007)low −10.6% (1914)

Central government deficit (% of GDP)

Report error
-12%-10%-8%-6%-4%-2%0%2%192019401960198020002020South AfricaSouth Africa
Percent of GDP

Compare with other countries →Definition of Central government deficit (% of GDP)

Recent values

Percent of GDP

YearValue
2025-4.53
2024-5.11
2023-5.31
2022-4.96
2021-4.94
2020-9.45
2019-5.55
2018-4.59
2017-4.48
2016-3.19

Sources

  • Mitchell1911–2010
  • South African Reserve Bank1960–2025
  • World Development Indicators1972–2024
  • African Development Bank1980–2025
  • IMF Government Finance Statistics1997–2024

Please cite: Müller, K., Xu, C., Lehbib, M., & Chen, Z. (2025). The Global Macro Database: A New International Macroeconomic Dataset. NBER Working Paper 33714. BibTeX →

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