An audit shows that Senegal’s former government lied about important economic statistics

Wednesday, Senegal’s Court of Auditors released a long-awaited review of the country’s finances. It found that the former government lied about important economic data, such as the debt and deficit numbers.

After the study came out, Senegal’s national Eurobonds went down in value. It was the 2033 dollar term that lost the most value, going down more than 2 cents to be offered at 79.95 on the dollar by 14:13 GMT.

When new president Bassirou Diomaye Faye took office in April 2024, he ordered an audit that showed the country had a lot more debt and a bigger budget gap than the previous government under Macky Sall had said.

Because of the audit, Faye’s government chose in June not to ask for more money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under its $1.8 billion credit line that lasts for three years.

The IMF put a hold on the scheme until the Court of Auditors could look it over. A spokeswoman for the IMF said last week that the Fund was working closely with the Senegalese government to figure out what kind of skill development they needed and how to make that happen.

“The work carried out by the Court shows that outstanding debt is higher than that shown in the reporting documents,” the report said.

According to the report, by the end of 2023, the total amount of debt owed was equal to 99.67% of the country’s GDP. That was higher than the previous record of 74.41%.

The study, which covers the budget for the government from 2019 to 2024, also found other strange things and differences in data between what was stated and what was actually found.

“The deficit calculated and reported to the IMF for the period under review is very far from its real value, if the exact volume of project loan disbursements is taken into account,” the Court wrote in the report.

The court said that the budget deficit for 2023 was 12.3% of GDP, which was higher than the 4.9% deficit recorded by the previous government.