S&P Global Downgrades Senegal’s Sovereign Rating Due to Worrisome Debt Level

With a Debt-to-GDP reaching 118%, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global has downgraded the sovereign rating of Senegal to B- on 14 July 2025. Following a recent audit, the rating agency pointed out that the public debt ratio has jumped up to 118%, well above its target of 104%. In 2023, the public debt of Senegal stood at 99.7% of its national #GDP; the worrisome level and continual downslide explain the ‘negative outlook’.

Senegal has thus the highest Debt-to-GDP ratio of all countries in Africa. This is the second time that S&P Global has downgraded Senegal’s score during the past six months, moving from B to B-. It indicates that S&P believes that Senegal will experience challenges to repay its debt, but the Government of Senegal responded that it remains committed to meeting its debt obligations.

“Despite still-strong economic growth prospects, we now view Senegal’s budgetary position as more constrained, leaving the country’s public finances more vulnerable to potential adverse economic and financial shocks in the future.”

S&P Global Spokesperson

Senegalese President Bassirou Faye puts the blame squarely on the previous regime led by Macky Sall who allegedly ‘misrepresented financial data and underreported the debt burden.’ With offshore hydrocarbon fields entering production and the operationalization of new gold mines, Senegal is betting on these new projects to inject new vigor into the economy.

The downward revision by S&P comes after Moody’s downgrade of Senegal’s Sovereign Credit Rating from B3 to B1 in February 2025. For the current year, the economic growth of Senegal is projected to slow down down from 7.3% growth to 6% and the Budget Deficit is forecasted to increase from 4.8% to 7.5% of the GDP. Following the downgrade, the interest on Senegal’s Eurobonds, maturing in 2033, gained 10 basis points to close at 13.82%, near a record high.