South Africa Posts First Successive Primary Surplus in 16 Years

South Africa achieved its first back-to-back primary budget surplus in 16 years, signaling its commitment to fiscal discipline.

The continent’s most-industrialized economy posted a primary surplus – where revenue exceeds non-interest expenditure – of 48.9 billion rand ($2.8 billion) or 0.7% of gross domestic product in the year through March 2025, the South African Reserve Bank’s Quarterly Bulletin showed. That matched the National Treasury’s May budget forecast, but missed its 2024 estimate of 61 billion rand.

The government increased total revenue by 83.4 billion rand to 1.8 trillion rand during the 2024-25 fiscal year due to increased tax collections across all main categories and trimmed expenditure by curtailing spending on recapitalizing state-owned firms, the bank said.

Source: Bloomberg