{"id":48361,"date":"2026-10-18T16:13:59","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T14:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=48361"},"modified":"2026-10-18T16:13:59","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T14:13:59","slug":"sa-leads-africas-2026-gdp-rankings","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-leads-africas-2026-gdp-rankings\/","title":{"rendered":"SA leads Africa&#8217;s 2026 GDP rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa (SA) has emerged as Africa&#8217;s largest economy in 2026 with a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $489.1 billion, accounting for roughly 13.5% of the continent&#8217;s total $3.63 trillion economic output, according to updated figures from the International Monetary Fund.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Egypt follows closely in second place with a GDP of $442.9 billion, while Nigeria ranks third at $386.7 billion after sharp currency depreciations in recent years impacted its total Dollar-denominated output. Algeria $331.9 billion and Morocco $195.6 billion round out the top five, with the five largest economies combined producing over half, approximately 51% of the continent&#8217;s total GDP.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Notable shifts across the rankings include Angola climbing to sixth position at $157.3 billion, ahead of Kenya ($151.2 billion), Ghana $128.6 billion, and Ethiopia $127.1 billion.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Republic of Congo has entered the top ten for the first time at $122.3 billion, surpassing C\u00f4te d&#8217;Ivoire $110.4 billion, largely driven by high global demand for its critical mineral exports, including cobalt and copper.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica\/TheAfricanexponent&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12528,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-48361","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa retains status as Africa's largest economy","published_date":"2026-10-18 15:54:08","news_description":"South Africa retains status as Africa's largest economy","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48363,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48361\/revisions\/48363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}