Government’s debt has been rising in South Africa and now exceed the financial assets of general government. However, government also owns other assets such as land, buildings, cash and natural resource reserves. The most recently available estimates for South Africa are for 2020 and show that general government’s net worth – assets less liabilities – is around 130% of GDP. According to the most recent Budget Review, state-owned companies, development finance institutions and other public entities (such as the National Library) would add around 25% of GDP to the overall net worth of government, while adding social security funds would deduct about 2.5% of GDP.
Footnote
Note that net worth estimates for the two most recent years are not available.
