{"id":32172,"date":"2026-04-16T16:52:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=32172"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:52:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T14:52:54","slug":"senegal-loan-talks-positive-more-deliberation-on-debt-neededimf","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/senegal-loan-talks-positive-more-deliberation-on-debt-neededimf\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal loan talks positive, more deliberation on debt needed:IMF"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has held positive discussions with Senegal this \u200bweek on a potential new loan \u200cprogram, but more time and analysis are needed to come up with a plan to \u200bdeal with a significant debt \u200boverhang, IMF Africa Director Abebe Selassie said \u2060on Thursday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Senegal is in focus at \u200bthe IMF spring meetings in Washington this \u200bweek after the discovery of billions in undisclosed debt, now estimated at $13 billion, prompted the IMF \u200bto halt a $1.8 billion loan program \u200bin 2024. The country has been in talks \u200con \u2060a new financing program with the global lender for some time.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We wanted to take time and allow the government time \u200bto come \u200bup with \u2060a program strategy that&#8217;s going to be credible, financeable, and \u200bavoid too much austerity on \u200bthe \u2060people of Senegal,&#8221; Selassie said in a press briefing. &#8220;So these discussions require reflection, quite \u2060a \u200blot of deliberation, and \u200bfirst and foremost, are for the government to develop.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14717,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-32172","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Senegal is in focus at \u200bthe IMF spring meetings in Washington this \u200bweek.","published_date":"","news_description":"Senegal is in focus at \u200bthe IMF spring meetings in Washington this \u200bweek.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32172","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":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32174,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/32172\/revisions\/32174"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=32172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}