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South Africa: General government debt (% of GDP)

Percent of GDP · 1913–2025 · 113 observations · forecasts to 2031 · gen_govdebt_GDP

2025
78.6%percent of GDP
Change on 2024
+2.7 pointsfrom 76.0%
Average, 2016–2025
64.0%10 years
Record high and low
128.5% (1932)low 23.2% (1984)

General government debt (% of GDP)

Report error
20%40%60%80%100%120%140%192019401960198020002020South AfricaSouth Africa
ForecastPercent of GDP

Compare with other countries →Definition of General government debt (% of GDP)

Recent values

Percent of GDP

YearValue
203182.6Forecast
203082.2Forecast
202981.7Forecast
202880.9Forecast
202779.7Forecast
202678.9Forecast
202578.6
202476.0
202373.2
202270.7
202168.8
202068.9
201956.1
201851.5
201748.6
201647.1

Sources

  • IMF Fiscal Policy Panel1913–2023
  • IMF Historical Public Debt Database1914–2015
  • IMF World Economic Outlook2000–2025
  • IMF WEO (forecast)2025–2031

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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