Economy · Current account balance · Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau’s current account balance rose to −7.4% of GDP in 2024.
−7.4% of GDP
2024
Up 0.35 pp from 2023.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
−7.4% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance adds up a country's trade in goods and services, the income it earns from or pays to abroad, and transfers such as remittances and foreign grants. A negative figure means more money leaves the economy through these channels than comes in. It leaves out loans, investment and other financial flows, which are how a deficit gets paid for. The figure is shown as a share of GDP so it can be compared across years and countries.
Higher is better. A higher balance is better because a surplus or a small deficit means the country relies less on foreign borrowing, aid or reserves to cover its spending abroad. Guinea-Bissau's latest figure is −7.4% of GDP for 2024, up from −7.7% of GDP a year earlier, an improvement of 0.35 percentage points. Since 2015 the balance has ranged from a high of 1.8% of GDP in 2015 to a low of −8% of GDP in 2019. The 2024 figure sits close to that low end of the range and far below the surplus of 2015.
Why it matters. A deficit of this size has to be financed from outside, through grants, loans or foreign investment. For the state, that links budget plans to the willingness of donors and lenders to keep supplying money. For households and firms, a persistent gap puts pressure on the cost and availability of imported goods, and any pull-back in outside financing would be felt quickly in a small economy.
| Period | Current account balance · Guinea-Bissau |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 1.8% of GDP |
| 2016 | 1.4% of GDP |
| 2017 | 0.26% of GDP |
| 2018 | −3.5% of GDP |
| 2019 | −8% of GDP |
| 2020 | −2.3% of GDP |
| 2021 | −0.74% of GDP |
| 2022 | −7.9% of GDP |
| 2023 | −7.7% of GDP |
| 2024 | −7.4% 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, Guinea-Bissau, 2024; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/guinea-bissau
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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.