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South Africa: General government expenditure (% of GDP)

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

2025
34.2%percent of GDP
Change on 2024
+1.2 pointsfrom 33.0%
Average, 2016–2025
32.0%10 years
Record high and low
34.6% (2020)low 10.6% (1964)

General government expenditure (% of GDP)

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

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

Recent values

Percent of GDP

YearValue
203132.6Forecast
203032.6Forecast
202932.8Forecast
202833.0Forecast
202732.9Forecast
202633.3Forecast
202534.2
202433.0
202332.5
202231.9
202132.7
202034.6
201931.4
201830.2
201729.9
201629.9

Sources

  • IMF Fiscal Policy Panel1913–2023
  • IMF Government Finance Statistics1977–2024
  • 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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