Le mardi dernier, seconde journée de la première édition du Gabon Economic Forum , discussions focused on public debt sustainability. These exchanges laid bare budgetary tensions and called for a profound overhaul of the State's debt mechanisms.

The plenary session of the Gabon Economic Forum brought together experts, public decision-makers and representatives of the private sector around an uncompromising diagnosis of external and domestic debt. According to the expert at the Banque africaine de développement (BAD), Cédric Achille Mbeng Mezui, high spreads discourage investors from engaging capital in Gabon, thus revealing a heightened perception of risk. According to the Director General of Debt, Jean Gaspard Ntoutoume Ayi, public debt reached 8,567.272 billion CFA francs as of 30 June 2025, including nearly 1,270 billion in unconventional debts. He regretted that the State continued to use debt to meet its deadlines instead of financing productive investments. In this dynamic, domestic debt, which is often overlooked, increases the budgetary burden, due to the lack of a legal framework equivalent to that governing