Senegal is continuing talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a new programme, “with the best interests of our country and our people in mind”, a Senior Adviser to President Bassirou Diomaye Faye told Reuters\u00a0this Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Aminata Toure, High Representative of the President and a former Prime Minister, said the suspension of a previous programme had impeded agreements with other donors, but the country remained “committed to all its payment engagements”.<\/p>\n
“So far we didn’t default, and we don’t intend to default at all,” she said.<\/p>\n
Senegal is grappling with a debt burden that reached 132% of gross domestic product at the end of 2024, according to IMF figures, after the government uncovered billions of dollars in misreported borrowing by the previous administration.<\/p>\n
The IMF froze a $1.8 billion lending programme after the discovery, and the two sides have been in talks for months over a replacement.<\/p>\n
“Senegal is willing to have a deal, but at the same time, Senegal is very strong on defending its own interests,” Toure said. “The discussions are going on; they are not blocked.”<\/p>\n
Senegal owes more than $480 million to Eurobond holders next month and expects to make the payments on time.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes you have to focus on priorities; that doesn’t mean that you are not interested in the rest,” she said.<\/p>\n
University students have recently protested over claims of unpaid financial aid, with one student dying last week following a campus raid. Following the incident, the higher Education Minister said Senegal was not currently in arrears to students.<\/p>\n
Toure\u00a0said in November the IMF had proposed a debt restructuring but that Senegal would not agree to one.<\/p>\n
Toure said on Wednesday that debt restructuring was “a very complex issue.”<\/p>\n
“Some decisions can have long-term impacts, including even blocking, sometimes, your growth prospects.”<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":16272,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23939","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Senegal is grappling with a debt burden that reached 132% of gross domestic product.","published_date":null,"news_description":"Senegal is grappling with a debt burden that reached 132% of gross domestic product.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23939","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26763,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23939\/revisions\/26763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}