Overview Current Account Financial Account Compare Methodology

BOP Data Methodology

Data Sources

South African Reserve Bank (SARB) — Quarterly Bulletins, Balance of Payments data (Tables S-85, S-86, S-87)
Stats SA — GDP data (P0441), trade statistics
National Treasury — GDP estimates for 2024–2025 (Budget Review publications)
IMF — Balance of Payments Manual, 6th Edition (BPM6) framework
SARB International Investment Position — FDI stock and portfolio positions

Per-Year Source Attribution

Each year's data is sourced from the corresponding SARB Quarterly Bulletin publications. The dashboard covers 11 calendar years (2015–2025).

Year	Publication	Tables	Notes
2015	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2015 & Mar 2016	S-85, S-86, S-87	Some sub-account breakdowns estimated from nearest available year
2016	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2016 & Mar 2017	S-85, S-86, S-87	Some sub-account breakdowns estimated
2017	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2017 & Mar 2018	S-85, S-86, S-87	Some sub-account breakdowns estimated
2018	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2018 & Mar 2019	S-85, S-86, S-87	Some sub-account breakdowns estimated
2019	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2019 & Mar 2020	S-85, S-86, S-87	—
2020	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2020 & Mar 2021	S-85, S-86, S-87	COVID-19 disruption year
2021	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2021 & Mar 2022	S-85, S-86, S-87	—
2022	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2022 & Mar 2023	S-85, S-86, S-87	—
2023	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2023 & Mar 2024	S-85, S-86, S-87	—
2024	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Dec 2024	S-85, S-86, S-87	Q4 may include preliminary estimates
2025	SARB Quarterly Bulletin, Jun 2025	S-85, S-86, S-87	Partial year — Q1 & Q2 only

GDP Data Sources

Nominal GDP figures are used to compute Current Account / GDP ratios.

Period	Source	Series
2015–2023	Stats SA	GDP at market prices, current prices (P0441)
2024	National Treasury	2024 Budget Review estimate
2025	National Treasury	2025 Budget Review estimate (partial year)

Data Quality Legend

Every data point in the system is tagged with a quality level indicating its provenance and reliability.

OFFICIAL

Directly sourced from an official publication and independently verified against the original document.

OFFICIAL_UNVERIFIED

Sourced from an official publication (SARB, Stats SA, National Treasury) but not yet independently cross-checked.

ESTIMATED

Derived using proportional allocation or interpolation from the nearest available official data year. Method documented per metric.

INTERPOLATED

Calculated by mathematical interpolation between two known data points. Method documented per metric.

2015–2018 Data Notes

Annual summary figures (CA balance, goods surplus, reserves, etc.) and quarterly breakdowns for 2015–2018 are sourced directly from SARB S-85 historical tables.

However, sub-account breakdowns (e.g. trade commodity splits, FDI sector shares, services sub-categories, income components) for these years are estimated using proportional allocation from the nearest year with available SARB detail (typically 2019).

These estimated values are tagged with ESTIMATED quality and displayed with an amber indicator in the UI. They should not be cited as official SARB figures.

2025 Partial Year

The 2025 data covers Q1 and Q2 only, as SARB Quarterly Bulletins for Q3 and Q4 2025 have not yet been published.

Summary values represent actual H1 totals — they are not annualized
Quarterly charts show only Q1 and Q2 data points
Year-on-year comparisons involving 2025 should be interpreted with caution
The year is marked as “(partial)” in all selectors

BPM6 Framework

The Balance of Payments is compiled according to the IMF's Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, Sixth Edition (BPM6). This framework provides a standardised methodology for recording a country's international transactions.

The BOP Identity:

Current Account + Capital Account + Financial Account + Net Errors & Omissions = 0

Current Account Components

Goods Trade — Merchandise exports and imports (FOB basis)
Services — Travel, transport, royalties, financial, ICT, construction
Primary Income — Investment income (dividends, interest, compensation of employees)
Secondary Income — Current transfers (SACU, remittances, aid, international org contributions)

Financial Account Components

Direct Investment (FDI) — Inward and outward FDI by sector composition (%)
Portfolio Investment — Equity and bond flows (inflows and outflows)
Other Investment — Loans, currency and deposits, trade credit
Reserve Assets — SARB gross foreign exchange reserves (USD bn)

FDI Sector Composition

FDI sector composition figures (Manufacturing, Mining, Financial Services, Other) represent the percentage of total inward FDI liabilities stock, not annual flows. These proportions are based on the latest available SARB International Investment Position data and are held constant across years for simplicity.

Data Coverage

The dashboard covers 11 calendar years (2015–2025) with quarterly breakdowns. All data is stored in a PostgreSQL database and served via API routes. Q4 2024 data may include preliminary estimates subject to revision in subsequent SARB Quarterly Bulletin publications. 2025 covers Q1–Q2 only.

Disclaimer

This dashboard presents Balance of Payments data for educational and analytical purposes only. While every effort has been made to accurately reflect official SARB publications, users should consult the original SARB Quarterly Bulletins for authoritative figures. Data is sourced from a database seeded from official publications. Some sub-account breakdowns for 2015–2018 are estimated using proportional allocation and are tagged accordingly. 2025 data is a partial year (H1 only). Figures may be subject to revision.