Minister of Economy and Finance of Benin since April 2016, Romuald Wadagni saw in 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, his country accede to the category of Middle-income countries. The Harvard Business Of School graduate is of the opinion that priority should be given to relaunching while preserving country signatures with major rating agencies, a decision hailed by S&P and, at the dawn of the year 2021 confirmed by Fitch and made concrete by a fanfare outing from Benin on the occasion of a Eurobond * subscribed by an enthusiastic market.
In 2020, Cotonou should register a growth of 2% according to the IMF and a projection of 6.3% on average between 2021 and 2023 (according to S&P). Public debt is expected to stabilize at 43% of GDP in 2020 while the budget deficit is forecast at 5.1% in 2020 before falling to 4.5% in 2021. Main negotiator of the WAEMU in the reforms on the Franc CFA, Romuald Wadagni has been praised several times by the IMF and the World Bank for the correctness of the public reforms undertaken by Benin. (The whole story to read in the monthly Financial Afrik number 76).
* The two Eurobonds issued on January 12 totaled 1 billion euros: the first for 700 million euros, over 7 years, with a rate of 4.875%; the second of 300 million euros, over 31 years, with a rate of 6.875%.
