Economy · Current account balance · Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso’s current account balance rose to −4% of GDP in 2024.
−4% of GDP
2024
Up 1.1 pp from 2023.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
−4% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance adds up what a country earns from and pays to the rest of the world in goods, services, investment income and transfers such as remittances and grants. The total is divided by GDP so that economies of different sizes can be compared. It covers trade and income flows only. Loans, investment inflows and changes in reserves sit in the financial account and are left out.
Higher is better. A higher balance is better because a surplus means the country earns more abroad than it spends, while a deficit has to be covered by borrowing, grants or reserves. The latest figure, for 2024, is −4% of GDP. A year earlier, in 2023, it was −5.1% of GDP, so the gap narrowed by 1.1 percentage points. Since 2015 the balance has ranged from −7.6% of GDP in 2015 to 4.2% of GDP in 2020. The 2024 figure sits in the lower part of that range, nearer the low than the high.
Why it matters. A deficit of 4% of GDP means Burkina Faso needs outside financing, through loans, grants or drawing on reserves, to pay for what it buys abroad. For households, that exposes the price of imported goods such as fuel to external conditions. For the state, each year of borrowing from abroad adds to the debt it must service. The narrowing from 2023 eases that pressure a little.
| Period | Current account balance · Burkina Faso |
|---|---|
| 2015 | −7.6% of GDP |
| 2016 | −6.1% of GDP |
| 2017 | −6.4% of GDP |
| 2018 | −4.2% of GDP |
| 2019 | −3.3% of GDP |
| 2020 | 4.2% of GDP |
| 2021 | 0.39% of GDP |
| 2022 | −7.5% of GDP |
| 2023 | −5.1% of GDP |
| 2024 | −4% 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, Burkina Faso, 2024; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/burkina-faso
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.