Senegal’s economy to rebound to 5% growth in 2021 – IMF

Reuters | Senegal’s economy will grow 5 percent in 2021 thanks in part to solid industrial output, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday, revising up a previous forecast of 3.5 percent growth for this year.

The Fund said it had reached a staff-level agreement with the West African nation that could pave the way for the disbursement of around a further US$180 million under an existing loan deal.

Senegal is seeking to recover from the economic shock of the pandemic, which caused its real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to slow to 1.5 percent in 2020 from 4.4 percent a year earlier.

“Senegal’s economic rebound through September 2021 was stronger than envisaged, even as the country faced a third wave of the pandemic in the third quarter, on the back of solid industrial and services production,” the IMF said in statement.

It forecast economic growth accelerating to 5.5 percent in 2022, and to peak at about 10 percent in 2023-24 with the start of oil and gas production, before easing to around 6 percent over the medium term.