South Africa · Cyclically Adjusted Primary Balance (IMF)

## What this measures

General government primary balance (excluding net interest) adjusted for the business cycle, as a percent of potential GDP. South Africa.

## Why it matters

Strips out what the economic cycle does to tax receipts and benefits, so the change from one year to the next shows the stance of fiscal policy itself: tightening or loosening.

## How to read it

Positive is a surplus, negative a deficit. A rise from one year to the next is a fiscal tightening. The series stops the year before the Fiscal Monitor's own year; its projection is a separate series.

## What it does not say

Potential output is estimated, not observed, so the cyclical adjustment is revised often and differs between the IMF, OECD and national agencies.

## Source

International Monetary Fund, Fiscal Monitor, read from the IMF data API (api.imf.org, dataflow IMF.FAD/FM). https://data.imf.org/ Attribution: Source: International Monetary Fund. Transformations by Palanor where stated. Palanor stores the IMF's figures as published, rounded to at most four significant decimals. IMF data is available free of charge from the IMF. Use follows the IMF Copyright and Usage terms, Special Terms for Statistical Data (imf.org/en/About/copyright-and-terms).