Press Release No. 18/107

Statement by IMF African Department Director Abebe Aemro Selassie at the Conclusion of his Visit to Senegal

March 26, 2018

• It will be important for the Senegalese authorities to enhance tax revenue mobilization to sustain much needed development spending and maintain debt sustainability.
• The WAEMU region has accomplished considerable economic progress, with high growth rates over the last six years.
• Sustaining this trend and containing macroeconomic imbalances will require adhesion to the regional convergence criterion on a fiscal deficit of no more than 3 percent of GDP by 2019 while mobilizing more revenues to create fiscal space.

Mr. Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) African Department, issued the following statement in Dakar at the conclusion of his visit to Senegal, which took place on 22–25 March 2018:

“It was both a pleasure and an honor to visit Senegal as the Director of the IMF’s African Department. Senegal has made impressive progress implementing its comprehensive Plan Senegal Emergent (PSE) in recent years, engendering high economic growth, poverty reduction, and improvements in standards of living. I congratulated the authorities on the progress made. Going forward, it will be important to enhance tax revenue mobilization to sustain much needed development spending and maintain debt sustainability.

“I have also had the opportunity to discuss recent regional developments with the WAEMU Council of Ministers. The region has accomplished considerable economic progress, with high growth rates over the last six years. To sustain this trend and contain macroeconomic imbalances, I underlined the importance of adhering to the regional convergence criterion on a fiscal deficit of no more than 3 percent of GDP by 2019 while mobilizing more revenues to create fiscal space.

“I would like to thank President Macky Sall, Finance and Economy Minister Amadou Ba, BCEAO Governor Tiémoko Meyliet Koné, all the WAEMU finance ministers, and other officials for their hospitality and for the opportunity to learn more about Senegal’s economic progress.”