Economy · Current account balance · DR Congo
DR Congo’s current account balance fell to −4.3% of GDP in 2025.
−4.3% of GDP
2025
Down 0.74 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
−4.3% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance adds up a country's trade in goods and services with the rest of the world, the income it earns or pays abroad on investment and work, and one-way transfers such as remittances and grants. The total is shown as a share of GDP, so it can be compared across years as the economy grows. It leaves out investment and lending flows, which show how a gap is financed. For DR Congo, exports are dominated by minerals, so the balance follows mining output and prices closely.
Higher is better. A higher balance means the country earns more from the world than it pays out, so it needs less foreign borrowing or investment to cover the difference. The balance in DR Congo is negative, at −4.3% of GDP in 2025. A year earlier it stood at −3.6% of GDP, so the deficit widened by 0.74 percentage points. Since 2016 the range runs from −5.6% of GDP in 2023 to −0.99% of GDP in 2021. The latest figure sits much closer to the bottom of that range than to the top.
Why it matters. A deficit of this size means DR Congo must finance its external gap each year through foreign investment, loans, grants or drawing on reserves. When financing is tight, pressure builds on the Congolese franc, which raises the cost of imported fuel, food and equipment for households and firms. The state also becomes more exposed to mineral export earnings and to the terms on which it can borrow abroad.
| Period | Current account balance · DR Congo |
|---|---|
| 2016 | −3.9% of GDP |
| 2017 | −3.3% of GDP |
| 2018 | −3.6% of GDP |
| 2019 | −3.6% of GDP |
| 2020 | −2.3% of GDP |
| 2021 | −0.99% of GDP |
| 2022 | −4.5% of GDP |
| 2023 | −5.6% of GDP |
| 2024 | −3.6% of GDP |
| 2025 | −4.3% 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, DR Congo, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/dr-congo
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.