Commercial users: see the World Economic Database from our partners at Anansi Data Analytics

South Africa: Central government expenditure (% of GDP)

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

2025
33.1%percent of GDP
Change on 2024
+0.8 pointsfrom 32.3%
Average, 2016–2025
32.5%10 years
Record high and low
35.2% (2020)low 12.0% (1911)

Central government expenditure (% of GDP)

Report error
10%15%20%25%30%35%40%192019401960198020002020South AfricaSouth Africa
Percent of GDP

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

Recent values

Percent of GDP

YearValue
202533.1
202432.3
202333.0
202232.9
202133.2
202035.2
201932.6
201831.2
201731.3
201630.3

Sources

  • Mitchell1911–2010
  • World Development Indicators1972–2022
  • African Development Bank1980–2025
  • South African Reserve Bank1990–2025
  • IMF Government Finance Statistics1996–2024

Compare these sources →

South Africa documentation (PDF)

More for South Africa

Real GDP per capita (USD)Nominal GDPReal GDPInflationUnemployment rateGovernment debt (% of GDP)All 76 series →

Central government expenditure (% of GDP) elsewhere

United StatesJapanGermanyUnited KingdomFranceIndia

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 →

GMD release 2026_09 · License & terms