The year 2025 was anything but easy. With the so-called hidden debt scandal, budget management was extremely challenging for the government. The official figures for this management were released in its fourth-quarter 2025 budget execution report.

A narrow miss for the recipes, but…

The key takeaway is that total general budget revenue reached 4,477.1 billion FCFA, compared to the expected 4,531.1 billion FCFA. Therefore, the target was missed by 54 billion FCFA. The achievement rate was 98.8%. However, the good news is that revenue increased by 471.9 billion FCFA compared to 2024.

To avoid a deficit exceeding the predetermined parameters, particularly those set by the IMF, the government did everything possible to control, and even reduce, its spending. As a result, total general budget expenditures were capped at 5,864.6 billion, representing 93.9% of the forecast.

Below the ceiling, the feat on the deficit side

Consequently, the State of Senegal, which had aimed for a deficit of 7.8%, has managed the remarkable feat of reducing it to 6.44%, amounting to 1,387.5 billion by the end of December 2025.

“The overall deficit is projected to narrow significantly, from 13.4% of GDP in 2024 to 7.8% in 2025, reflecting the authorities' strong commitment to fiscal consolidation. The 2026 draft budget confirms this commitment by targeting a further deficit reduction to 5.4% of GDP,” the IMF stated at the conclusion of its November 2025 review. The government has therefore exceeded its target.

Increasingly heavy debt burdens

Moreover, for interest and debt service alone, the State of Senegal paid 1088.1 billion FCFA in 2025: 641.7 billion FCFA was disbursed for external debt and 446.4 billion FCFA for domestic debt.

Also, 559.1 billion FCFA was executed under investments from internal resources and 912.7 billion FCFA for investments financed by project loans and capital grants.

Construction industry arrears partially cleared

In 2025, the government planned to clear 500.9 billion FCFA in outstanding payments. By the end of 2025, it had made payments totaling 474.0 billion FCFA, representing an overall achievement rate of 94.6%. A remaining balance of 23.5 billion FCFA was still outstanding at the end of December.

While the energy sector received 145.6 billion out of 146 billion under this settlement, the construction sector received only 82.2 billion out of 105 billion. “This situation is explained by the incompleteness of certain expenditure files submitted to the ad hoc committee for validating arrears files,” the report states.