Economy · Current account balance · Burundi
Burundi’s current account balance rose to −13.7% of GDP in 2025.
−13.7% of GDP
2025
Up 1.9 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
−13.7% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance adds up everything a country earns from the rest of the world and subtracts everything it pays out. It covers trade in goods and services, income on work and investment abroad, and transfers such as remittances and aid, all divided by GDP. Loans, investment and other financial flows sit in a separate account, so the figure says nothing about how any gap is paid for.
Higher is better. A higher balance is better because the country then relies less on foreign borrowing, aid or reserves to cover its spending abroad. Burundi's latest figure, for 2025, is −13.7% of GDP, up from −15.6% a year earlier, an improvement of 1.9 percentage points. Since 2016 the balance has ranged from −18.4% of GDP in 2023 to −10.9% of GDP in 2020. The 2025 reading therefore sits in the better half of that range, though still short of the 2020 high.
Why it matters. A deficit of −13.7% of GDP means Burundi pays out far more to the rest of the world than it receives, and the difference has to be financed from abroad through aid, loans or foreign currency reserves. Firms that import fuel, equipment or inputs depend on that foreign currency being available. The state depends on continued external financing to keep the gap manageable.
| Period | Current account balance · Burundi |
|---|---|
| 2016 | −12.5% of GDP |
| 2017 | −13.2% of GDP |
| 2018 | −13.4% of GDP |
| 2019 | −13.7% of GDP |
| 2020 | −10.9% of GDP |
| 2021 | −11.4% of GDP |
| 2022 | −15.3% of GDP |
| 2023 | −18.4% of GDP |
| 2024 | −15.6% of GDP |
| 2025 | −13.7% of GDP |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0) · Licence: CC BY 4.0
How to read this number
- Source
- Who published the figure
- Published
- When they released it
- Verified
- When we last checked it against the source
Every change is logged in Corrections. How the figure is made: Methodology.
Cite this number
Show text
Strata-AF™ Data, Current account balance, Burundi, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/burundi
Data insights · Worked out from the published figures
What this means
Working this out from the published figures…
Strata AI commentary is coming — reviewed, dated, and generated only from the figures on this page.
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.