Senegal: IMF mission in Dakar from August 19 to September 1 to negotiate a new financing agreement

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff mission, led by Mercedes Vera Martin, mission chief for Senegal, will visit Dakar from August 19 to September 1, 2026. According to an IMF statement distributed by APO Group, the team will continue discussions with the Senegalese authorities aimed at reaching a common understanding on policies and reforms that could be supported by an IMF lending arrangement. The IMF reaffirms its commitment to helping Senegal preserve macroeconomic stability and foster sustainable and inclusive growth. Fund staff will also meet with other stakeholders during the mission, and Mercedes Vera Martin will issue a statement at the end of her visit. This visit follows the suspension in 2024 of a previous IMF program, following the revelation of budgetary irregularities under the former administration, which led to an upward revision of public debt, bringing it to nearly 99% of GDP for 2023 according to data published at the time. Since President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko came to power in April 2024, Dakar has been negotiating a new framework with the institution, against a backdrop marked by the launch of oil production at the Sangomar offshore field in late 2024. The outcome of these discussions conditions Senegal's access to IMF concessional financing and influences the perception of bilateral creditors and international bond markets regarding its debt sustainability. The stakes intersect internal factors—the new government's fiscal credibility and its capacity to correct past transparency shortcomings—and external factors—high global interest rates making refinancing more costly and the volatility of nascent oil and gas revenues, which are set to weigh on the country's fiscal trajectory.