Zambia · General Government Primary Balance (IMF)

## What this measures

General government net lending or borrowing excluding net interest payments (the primary balance), as a percent of GDP. Zambia.

## Why it matters

The part of the budget a government controls today. Whether debt stabilizes depends on it and on the gap between interest rates and growth.

## How to read it

Positive is a primary surplus, negative a primary deficit.

Each point is one year's figure in the newest World Economic Outlook, dated December 31. The series stops the year before the WEO's own year; the IMF's forecast from there is a separate series (the same name with "IMF Projection"), so this line never mixes measured and forecast years. The newest year is often still an IMF estimate, and the whole history is revised with each edition.

## What it does not say

Not adjusted for the business cycle.

## 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.