Gabon: Current account balance (% of GDP)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2015, Gabon's current account balance (% of GDP) fell 5.13 percentage points on 2014 (from 6.11% to 0.98%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1983 to 2014), the average change was −0.13 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 10.61 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.5 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 21.66 percentage points in 1999 and the biggest yearly fall was 26.2 percentage points in 1986. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2007 to 2015 the straight-line trend is downward, about 2.37 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 69% of the movement over 9 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

What this measures

Balance of current transactions (transactions in goods and services, earned income and transfer income) between residents and non-residents. The term current account balance is used in the external accounts and is expressed from the perspective of resident units. The term current external balance is used in the national accounts and is expressed from the perspective of the non-resident units, and therefore with the opposite sign. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period.

All 37 values

Current account balance (% of GDP) in nearby economies

• Angola — 0.34% (2025)
• Benin — -8.18% (2023)
• Botswana — 2.93% (2025)
• Burkina Faso — -3.97% (2024)
• Burundi — -13.71% (2025)
• Cabo Verde — 3.56% (2025)
• Cameroon — -3.28% (2024)
• Comoros — -1.68% (2023)
• Congo, Dem. Rep. — -4.33% (2025)
• Congo, Rep. — 11.57% (2021)
• Côte d'Ivoire

More economic policy & debt data for Gabon

• General government final consumption expenditure (current US$) — US$2.39 billion (2025)
• General government final consumption expenditure (current LCU) — 1.39 trillion (2025)
• General government final consumption expenditure (constant 2015 US$) — US$1.91 billion (2025)
• General government final consumption expenditure (constant LCU) — 992.1 billion (2025)
• General government final consumption expenditure (% of GDP) — 11.16% (2025)
• Households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (constant 2015 US$) — US$5.93 billion (2025)
• Households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (constant LCU) — 2.77 trillion (2025)
• Households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure per capita (constant 2015 US$)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Gabon's current account balance (% of GDP)?

0.98% in 2015, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1978?

It is down 2.11 percentage points from 3.09% in 1978. The highest value was 24.59% in 2008 and the lowest -31.07% in 1986.

Is the latest change in current account balance (% of GDP) unusual for Gabon?

In 2015, Gabon's current account balance (% of GDP) fell 5.13 percentage points on 2014 (from 6.11% to 0.98%). Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1983 to 2014), the average change was −0.13 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 10.61 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.5 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF); World Development Indicators Database, World Bank (WB); National Accounts data files, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator BN.CAB.XOKA.GD.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF); World Development Indicators Database, World Bank (WB); National Accounts data files, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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