Senegal’s economic slowdown in 2008 and 2009 – caused by rising food and oil prices and a decline in tourism and remittances from Europe – hurt its banks. Liquidity tightened, causing many of them to decelerate their lending. Yet it was testament to the opportunities that the country holds for banks that, even amid a sluggish economy, many still expanded their assets by between 5% and 15% in each of those two years.
Senegal’s growth has since recovered, its gross domestic product rising about 4% in real terms in 2011 and expected to do the same in 2012. Lending has once again picked up. Private sector credit expansion, still in single digits in the first quarter of 2011, had climbed to 16% year on year by May 2011, according to research by Standard Bank.
