Public Sector Expenditure on Economic Growth in South Sudan

Abstract

The topic of this study was public sector expenditure on economic growth in South Sudan, the objectives of the study were: to examine the influence of education expenditure on economic growth, to evaluate the relationship between health expenditure and economic growth and to assess the relationship between agriculture expenditure and economic growth. South Sudan’s economy remains heavily dependent on government spending and external trade, with gross domestic product (GDP) growth being the key indicator of economic performance ( Lual et al., 2022 ). The study was an explanatory research design, this study adopted a quantitative research design, specifically an explanatory and correlational design, because it sought to examine the relationship and influence of different categories of public sector expenditure on economic growth. This study examined the relationship between public sector expenditure on education, health, and agriculture and economic growth (measured by GDP) in South Sudan from 2012 to 2025. The findings revealed a very strong and statistically significant positive correlation between GDP and both educational expenditure (r = 0.924, p p p p = 0.306), education (r = 0.209, p = 0.247), and health (r = 0.212, p = 0.243).