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South Africa: General government deficit (% of GDP)

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

2025
−5.78%percent of GDP
Change on 2024
−0.2 pointsfrom −5.53%
Average, 2016–2025
−5.71%10 years
Record high and low
1.04% (1980)low −11.6% (1914)

General government deficit (% of GDP)

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

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

Recent values

Percent of GDP

YearValue
2031-3.91Forecast
2030-3.93Forecast
2029-4.09Forecast
2028-4.36Forecast
2027-4.34Forecast
2026-4.32Forecast
2025-5.78
2024-5.53
2023-6.60
2022-5.04
2021-6.61
2020-10.5
2019-5.08
2018-3.65
2017-4.33
2016-3.96

Sources

  • IMF Fiscal Policy Panel1913–2023
  • IMF Government Finance Statistics1977–2024
  • OECD Economic Outlook1995–2025
  • IMF World Economic Outlook2000–2025
  • OECD Economic Outlook (forecast)2025–2027
  • IMF WEO (forecast)2025–2031

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 →

General government deficit (% of GDP) elsewhere

United StatesChinaJapanGermanyUnited KingdomFrance

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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