Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko recently denounced what he considers to be a falsification of economic figures by the previous regime of Macky Sall. During a press conference held on September 26, 2024, Sonko expressed concerns about the manipulation of Senegal’s financial data, calling the situation a “scandal.” He accuses former President Macky Sall and some of his former collaborators, including Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo, Amadou Ba and the late Mamadou Moustapha Ba, of lacking financial transparency and misappropriating public funds.
Le Quotidien, reporting these criticisms, emphasizes that this accusation was followed by a downgrading of Senegal’s sovereign rating by the Moody’s agency. The latter downgraded the country’s rating from Ba3 to B1, citing surveillance, while Standard and Poor’s placed Senegal under “negative” outlook.
Sonko insisted on the need for thorough investigations, saying former officials “will have to explain to the Senegalese how they were able to plunge the country into this situation.” He also criticized the practices for presenting public figures, indicating that the public deficit would be double that announced and that the public debt would be around 10 percentage points, higher than the official figures since 2019.
Abdourahmane Sarr, Minister of the Economy, supported these statements during the same conference, stipulating that the average public debt, announced at 65.9% of GDP between 2019 and 2023, was in reality 76.3% of GDP. According to him, at the end of 2023, the debt amounted to 15,664 billion FCFA, representing 83.7% of GDP, against the announced figure of 13,772 billion FCFA.
Faced with these revelations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) $1.8 billion program with Senegal was temporarily suspended. Le Quotidien explains that this suspension aims to negotiate a new agreement with the IMF in 2025. To compensate for this deficit, the new authorities have raised 300 million dollars on the international financial market.
In response, former President Macky Sall disputed the accusations and defended himself in an interview with Bloomberg. Sall expressed astonishment at the findings of the audit, which he had never heard of, saying the country’s economic figures were green when he left.
As the situation evolves, Le Quotidien recalls that all hopes are focused on the publication of the report from the Court of Auditors, expected to further clarify this complex situation.
