Senegal’s credit rating was cut by Moody’s Investors Service after a court of auditors established that the country’s finances during the final term of former president Macky Sall were weaker than previously documented.
The nation’s long-term foreign-currency rating was lowered by two notches to B3, six steps below investment grade, Moody’s said in a statement. The outlook was set to negative after being placed on watch for a downgrade, it said.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who came to power last April, commissioned an investigation into Senegal’s finances that showed the debt burden increased in each of the five years of Sall’s final term.
Debt to gross domestic product jumped to a recalculated 99.7% in 2023 from 65.6% in 2019, the court of auditors said Feb. 12. The budget deficit was estimated at 12.3% of GDP in 2023, compared with the 4.9% reported by the previous administration, according to the report.
“The downgrade is driven by the substantially weaker fiscal metrics revealed by Senegal’s court of auditors,” Moody’s said Friday. “The scale and nature of the discrepancies significantly limit Senegal’s fiscal space and contribute to elevated funding needs, while indicating material past governance deficiencies.”
