A top boss at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says his organisation hopes to finalise a new aid programme for Senegal as soon as possible after suspending its $1.8 billion credit line in October following revelations of distorted figures and fiscal mismanagement.
Senegal's Court of Auditors found last month that the country's outstanding debt represents 99.67 percent of GDP.
A separate IMF inquiry has found that between 2019 and 2024 a debt of approximately 7 billion dollars was hidden by the administration of the then president Macky Sall.
"There was a very conscious decision to underestimate the debt stock over those five years," Eddy Gemayel, head of the IMF delegation in Senegal, told RFI.
"So we agree with the conclusion of the report from the Court of Auditors," Gemayel added.
This 7 billion dollar sum corresponds to the difference between the two estimates of public debt - the one declared under the Sall government (which is at more than 70 percent of gross domestic product) and the one calculated by the Court of Auditors (close to 100 percent of GDP).
The IMF pulled its aid programme in Senegal after the government of Ousmane Sonko said last September that economic data had been misreported by Sall.
Recommendations
Gemayel now urges the government to continue its efforts to rebuild public finances.
"There is an underestimation," Gemayel said. "A portion of the debt has been hidden and this has allowed the authorities to borrow more on the markets, to send a more positive signal to the financial markets, and also to borrow at more favorable rates than those rates would have been if the debt were higher."
Gemayel says Senegal should concentrate on its current budget so that the IMF can agree a new programme as soon as possible.
He also advocated major reforms such as cleaning up public finance. "There is a very important role for the public sector to play in Senegal," he said.
Senegal's public budget deficit, recalculated by the Court of Auditors for 2023, is 12.3 percent compared to 4.9 announced earlier.
This report was followed by a downgrade of Senegal's credit rating by two agencies, Moody's and Standard and Poor's.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye swept to power in April 2024. He and Sonko promised to end political and economic dependence on foreign countries, notably its former colonial ruler France.
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A left-wing pan-Africanist, Faye's election raised immense hopes after economic turmoil and three years of acute political crisis marked by a deadly crackdown on protests.
"Since the new administration came in, the authorities have been very transparent in their approach to public finances, Gemayel said. "This is something very important."
(with AFP)
