Gabon's government has authorised borrowing of up to $1.5 billion (857.85 billion CFA francs) on international markets this year in a revised 2026 budget published on Tuesday.
The revised budget lands as Gabon pushes for an International Monetary Fund programme and as the Central African nation awaits the findings of an audit of years of public borrowing.
It puts Gabon's total financial debt bill - interest payments plus loan amortisation - at 1.797 trillion CFA francs ($3.16 billion) for 2026.
Interest charges alone were revised up 16% from the initial budget enacted in December 2025 to 487.6 billion CFA francs. Treasury cash advances used to cover short-term funding gaps are budgeted to jump 376% to 39.1 billion CFA francs.
Alongside the international borrowing, the government plans 424.9 billion CFA francs in domestic Treasury bond issuance.
The new budget slashes overall revenue projections by 22% to 3.24 trillion CFA francs. Extractive-sector income fell, with profit-sharing oil revenue down 30% and mining-company tax receipts falling 97%, the budget documents show.
The budget shows an overall financing gap of 915.6 billion CFA francs for the year.
The public debt audit is reviewing 2016-2024 records for undisclosed liabilities, unexecuted projects and funds that did not reach Treasury accounts - a review credit rating agency Moody's has said could uncover additional unreported debt.
($1 = 569.5000 CFA francs)
