Dakar, Oct 5 (APS) – Newspapers received on Saturday at the Senegalese Press Agency (APS) emphasize the lowering of Senegal’s rating by the Moody’s agency, made public Friday by the Ministry of Finance and Development. Budget.
The Moody’s agency has reduced Senegal’s rating due to the increase in the budget deficit and the level of debt observed in the country between 2019 and 2023, the Senegalese Ministry of Finance and Budget said on Friday.
”Senegal’s rating has just been revised downwards from Ba3 with stable outlook to B1, with monitoring. This drop is consecutive to the upward revision of the budget deficit and the debt level observed over the 2019-2023 period,” he said in a press release.
The rating agency reacted in this way to ”the audit of public finances, the preliminary results of which were communicated by the government on September 26, 2024,” adds the ministry.
“Moody’s degrades Senegal,” writes Walf Quotidien on its front page. The newspaper specifies in its columns that ”Senegal’s rating went from Ba3 to B1 with it being placed under surveillance”.
According to Walf Quotidien, this drop follows the audit of public finances, the preliminary results of which were communicated by the Government on September 26, reporting a debt rate and a budget deficit above the required standards. ”.
He informs that ”faced with this situation, the Minister of Finance and Budget reaffirms the government’s firm desire to quickly implement ambitious reforms to significantly reduce the deficit from 2025 and consolidate this reduction in the short term, in agreement with the commitments made within UEMOA and ECOWAS.
“The damage of false figures”, exclaims Bès Bi on his Une jour. In plain language, ”Senegal presents risks of insolvency, with an economic situation that scares the markets. So bonds subject to high credit risk,” explains economics professor at Faseg, Amath Ndiaye, whose comments are reported by the same publication.
According to Professor Ndiaye, ”the government had no interest in giving figures which, moreover, are not official because not yet certified by the Court of Auditors and which on the contrary, have only destroyed the image of the country”.
Le Quotidien echoes the case of journalist Madiambal Diagne, banned from leaving the country as he was preparing to take a flight. Which makes this publication say in its headline “AIBD, political terminal”.
Meanwhile, L’Info headlines “Harassment against opponents and journalists Khalifa Sall raises his voice”. In the Journal, the former mayor of Dakar said he learned, with ”dismay”, of the ban on journalist Madiambal Diagne’s exit from the territory ”with the reason being the request for the return of a diplomatic passport which he does not not have”.
For Khalifa Sall, still quoted by the newspaper, ”a citizen cannot return an official travel document which has not previously been granted to him by the State of Senegal. “These methods, unacceptable in a rule of law, must immediately stop,” according to him.
For its part, the national daily Le Soleil reported extensively on the 5th national clean-up day “Sétal sunu reew” dedicated to schools. “Two days before the start of the school year, some flooded and even dilapidated schools need to be cleaned,” writes the newspaper.
“Mobilization for a rejuvenation”, displays on its front page the national daily which announces at the same time that the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye is expected at the Demba Diop high school in Mbour, while the Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko will go to Assane Seck University in Ziguinchor.
