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

South Africa: Government expenditure (% of GDP)

Percent of GDP · 1911–2025 · 115 observations · forecasts to 2031 · 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)

Government expenditure (% of GDP)

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

Compare with other countries →Definition of 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

This series is derived from other GMD variables.

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