Economy · Current account balance · Lesotho
Lesotho’s current account balance fell to 0.05% of GDP in 2025.
0.05% of GDP
2025
Down 4.1 pp from 2024.
Updated 8 Oct 2026
In plain words
0.05% of GDP
What it is. The current account balance adds up what a country earns from the rest of the world and subtracts what it pays out. It covers trade in goods and services, income from work and investment abroad, and transfers such as money sent home by workers. Capital flows and borrowing sit outside it, though they are the means by which any gap is financed. Expressing the balance as a share of GDP lets readers compare years of different economic size.
Higher is better. A surplus means the country earns more abroad than it spends, so it needs less foreign borrowing and builds external buffers. A deficit has to be financed from outside. The latest figure for 2025 is 0.05% of GDP, down 4.1 percentage points from 4.1% of GDP a year earlier. Since 2016 the range runs from a low of −13.6% of GDP in 2017 to that high of 4.1% of GDP in 2024. The 2025 figure therefore sits close to the top of its range and just above balance, though well below the previous year's peak.
Why it matters. A balance near zero means Lesotho's receipts from abroad roughly match its payments, so the economy needs little foreign financing this year. The 2017 deficit of −13.6% of GDP shows how large the external gap has been in the past. The fall from 4.1% of GDP in 2024 means the cushion built up that year has thinned, which matters for the state's ability to meet foreign payments and for the price of imported goods that households buy.
| Period | Current account balance · Lesotho |
|---|---|
| 2016 | −11.2% of GDP |
| 2017 | −13.6% of GDP |
| 2018 | −5.7% of GDP |
| 2019 | −6.2% of GDP |
| 2020 | −4.3% of GDP |
| 2021 | −8.1% of GDP |
| 2022 | −11.2% of GDP |
| 2023 | −7.7% of GDP |
| 2024 | 4.1% of GDP |
| 2025 | 0.05% 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, Lesotho, 2025; source World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), retrieved 8 Oct 2026; https://data.strata-af.com/economy/current-account-balance/lesotho
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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.