Dar es Salaam, Sept. 8 -- WHEN IMF staff announced a staff-level agreement with Senegal on September 1, 2026 on a thirty-six-month Extended Credit Facility worth about 2.2 billion US dollars, equivalent to roughly 475 per cent of the countrys quota, the conventional expectation was that markets would stabilise.

A fresh Fund programme normally signals a sovereign has secured a financing backstop, a credible fiscal path and a route back to international capital markets. Senegal received the backstop.

It did not receive the trust. Three days later, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the countrys long-term foreign-currency rating from CCC+ to CC and its localcurrency rating from CCC+ to CCC, maintaining a negative outlook and stating that a dist...