Government spending can be defined as any expenditure made by local, regional, and national governments making up a considerable portion of the Gross National Product (GNP). Government spending can be financed by government borrowing or taxes. The expenditure is vital for the efficient running of the economy. The need for much of the government expenditure arises from the fact that some goods cannot be provided at all by a free market economy and that others may be under-provided. It is expenditure on merit goods such as health, education, police and defence, among others, that accounts for a large proportion of government spending. Economic growth represents the expansion of a country’s potential GDP or output. When the economy is growing positively, businesses will need to hire more people to help to cope with the increase in production and services and consequently leading to economic growth which reflects the standard of living of a country. Although South Sudan is one of the fastest growing economies in East and Central Africa if not for the war, its economy still depends heavily on oil production and agriculture sector which is still inactive. The government of South Sudan uses a number of regulatory bodies to regulate the economic development. These bodies include the Central Bank of South Sudan and the Capital Markets Authority which are not always effective in measuring growth and formulating policies towards its development. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of government expenditure on economic growth in South Sudan. The study was descriptive in nature and involved quantitative analysis of data which employed secondary data to analyse the effect of government expenditure on economic growth in South Sudan. Data for economic growth was obtained from World Bank and IMF data bank from 2007 to 2019. The study findings indicated that; there is a significant influence of the government spending on education, infrastructure, health and defence. Thus it has been recommended that education spending should be linked to resource needs (both human and capital) both at subnational and facility levels. The Government should emphasize infrastructure development to reduce the cost of doing business and enhance efficiency in service delivery to accelerate development. The government should be committed to improving access and equity of essential health care services by setting critical and ambitious targets for providing health services to the citizens as well. Finally, in order to achieve the national goals and objectives, provision of security in the country is critical.

Keywords: Government expenditure, government spending, economic growth, South Sudan