The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reached a staff-level agreement with Senegal on a new 36-month, $2.2 billion debt program to support the country’s economic and financial reforms from 2026 to 2029.
The IMF said in a statement that the agreement followed the suspension of a previous $1.8 billion program after previously unreported government debt was discovered.
The new program is designed to support Senegal’s economic and financial reform program and to address concerns over the country’s previous reporting of fiscal data.
But the IMF said Senegal would have to take “decisive corrective measures” to underpin its request for a waiver linked to misreporting of data.
The staff-level agreement is subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board before becoming effective.
Senegal’s newly installed government, which rose to power following an opposition electoral victory, accused the administration of former President Macky Sall of hiding the true scale of the country’s fiscal difficulties in 2024.
The IMF then suspended the $1.8 billion program agreed in 2023 until it received more information and commitments from the new authorities.
The IMF said Senegal’s budget deficit in 2023 was 12.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), much higher than the 4.9 per cent reported by the previous government.
Discussions on a new program began in mid-October following several IMF missions to review Senegal’s financial situation.
At end-2024 Senegal’s public sector debt was estimated at 132 per cent of GDP, one of the most indebted countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
But its overall fiscal deficit narrowed from 13.4 percent of GDP in 2024 to 6.4 percent in 2025, mainly due to spending rationalization, the IMF said in June.
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Senegal has continued to finance much of its borrowing through the regional bond market, but at a higher cost than financing from international financial institutions, development banks and governments, according to global ratings agency S&P.
The new IMF program also comes amid political disagreements between President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko over economic policy and relations with the Fund.
Faye sacked Sonko as premier in May, but Sonko was subsequently elected speaker of the National Assembly, a position that might hobble the government’s ability to implement IMF-backed reforms.
Faye has favored a more conciliatory relationship with the IMF, while Sonko has been opposed to debt restructuring.
Last week, Moody’s downgraded Senegal’s long-term foreign-currency debt rating to Caa2 from Caa1, citing the country’s negotiations with the IMF.
