Zambia · Budget Balance · % GDP

## What this measures

General government net lending (+) or net borrowing (−): revenue minus total spending, interest included, as a share of GDP.

## Why it matters

The deficit is how fast debt grows before growth and inflation shrink it. It is the number budget rules and rating agencies watch.

## How to read it

Negative is a deficit. A deficit that persists above the economy's nominal growth times its debt ratio pushes the debt ratio up.

Each point is one year's figure in the newest World Economic Outlook, dated December 31, up to the year before the edition's own year. The IMF's projection from there is a separate series (imf.weo.*.projection). The newest year is often still an IMF estimate, and the whole history is revised with each edition (April and October).

## What it does not say

Not adjusted for the business cycle: a recession widens the deficit with no change in policy. The OECD Economic Outlook, the panel's source for this measure elsewhere, does not publish it for Zambia, so the figures here are the IMF's and compare with other countries' OECD figures on definition but not always to the decimal.

## Source

Source: IMF World Economic Outlook Database, October 2026 (the IMF's published database file, WEOOct2026all.xlsx). Figures as published, rounded to at most four decimals. Provided by the IMF "as is" and available free of charge from the IMF; the IMF does not endorse Palanor.