Senegal budget row extends IMF deal uncertainty

Lawmakers reject the government’s $13 billion plan which included a cut to public investment. Senegal’s parliament rejected a revised budget on Tuesday, complicating the heavily indebted West African country’s efforts to restore financing from the International Monetary Fund. A long-standing row over spending policies and relations with the IMF has created instability at the top of Senegalese politics, threatening to undermine creditors’ confidence and delay IMF approval. The government’s $13 billion plan included a cut to public investment in order to cover extra costs after high oil prices made energy subsidies more expensive. But Pastef, the majority party led by parliament speaker and former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, argued that households and essential public services would bear too much of the burden. The country is seeking final approval for a three-year, $2.2 billion IMF loan program intended to ease budget pressures and unlock other financing. The deal, agreed in principle in September, would replace a program frozen after billions of dollars in unreported government debt emerged in 2024.