Economy · Current account balance · Botswana
Botswana’s current account balance rose to 2.9% of GDP in 2025.
2.9% of GDP
2025
Up 7.4 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
2.9% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance adds up a country's trade in goods and services, the income it earns from and pays to foreign owners, and transfers such as remittances and aid. A positive figure means more money came in from the rest of the world than went out. It covers day-to-day flows only. Investment in assets and loans across borders is recorded elsewhere, and the balance is shown as a share of the size of the economy so years can be compared.
Higher is better. A higher balance is better because a surplus means the country earns more abroad than it spends, so it can add to foreign assets instead of borrowing. The latest figure, for 2025, is 2.9% of GDP. A year earlier, in 2024, it was −4.5% of GDP, so the balance improved by 7.4 percentage points. Since 2016 the range runs from a low of −9.8% of GDP in 2020 to a high of 8% of GDP in 2016. The 2025 reading sits in the upper half of that range, with the 2016 peak still well above it.
Why it matters. A surplus of 2.9% of GDP means Botswana's earnings from abroad exceeded its payments in 2025. That eases pressure on foreign exchange reserves and the pula, which a deficit like the one in 2024 would have drawn on. For households and firms that relies on imported goods and inputs, a steadier external position supports reliable supply. For the state, it reduces the need to borrow abroad to cover the gap.
| Period | Current account balance · Botswana |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 8% of GDP |
| 2017 | 5.6% of GDP |
| 2018 | 0.39% of GDP |
| 2019 | −6.9% of GDP |
| 2020 | −9.8% of GDP |
| 2021 | −1.8% of GDP |
| 2022 | −0.59% of GDP |
| 2023 | 1.5% of GDP |
| 2024 | −4.5% of GDP |
| 2025 | 2.9% of GDP |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
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Strata-AF™ Data, Current account balance, Botswana, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/botswana
Data insights · Worked out from the published figures
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Methodology
Current account balance as a share of GDP. Unit: % of GDP. A negative value is a deficit.
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (series BN.CAB.XOKA.GD.ZS), retrieved through the World Bank API and published under CC BY 4.0. Updated annually; the World Bank's own source notes apply.