Positive projections from the IMF

Senegal’s economy will grow about 3.1 percent this year, up from 2.5 percent in 2008, as government management of the economy improves, the International Monetary Fund said.

“Budgetary slippages, which had seriously affected the economy” and put IMF support for Senegal at risk, have been successfully addressed, the Washington-based lender said in an e-mailed statement today. “The government’s unpaid bills have been substantially reduced and far-reaching public financial management reforms launched.”

The IMF expects growth in the west African nation to accelerate to 3.4 percent next year and 4.3 percent in 2011.

Consumer inflation was projected to slow to 3.3 percent this year from 5.8 percent last year, and to 0.8 percent in 2010, as food and fuel price increases slow, the IMF said.

The Wade administration should be credited with helping to effect the fiscal discipline that has got the country straightened out.

Karim Wade takes critical infrastructure ministry

Karim Wade has been appointed the "go to" guy for infrastructure in the Wade government. With the appointment by President Wade, he and his son appear to have shaken off the defeats of last month's local elections.

The junior Wade takes the title of Minister for Transportation and Infrastructure. The appointment is a natural fit for the front man of Senegal's "Concrete Generation" movement. The eager-beaver apparatchiks of the Generation de concrete have pushed modern world infrastructure in Senegal.

The newly minted minister's top priority is sure to be the flightless Air Senegal, its crumbled partnership with Royal Air Morac threatening to ground the national airline permanently, even as the new Dakar airport gets going.

Karim's new job is arguably the most significant in Senegal government. Karim Wade's success or failure will impact on Senegal's quest to be the capital of West Africa.

Election eve: the Wades "double down."

Now it's a sporting game. Thanks to the Wade father-son team, tomorrow's local elections in Senegal take on a transcendent importance. After spending the last two weeks on separate electioneering tours of the county, President Abdoulaye Wade and son, Karim, have turned the election into a referendum for their party, their coalition and their own political futures. They have bet, double-down, on a popular endorsement to obtain a legitimate mandate.

President Wade's full ahead infrastructure agenda is given a populist gestalt by his son's "Concrete Generation" movement. They have met their political opponents head-on during the last weeks. The president toured the high road, focused on economic issues. Karim hit the ground with "mobilizations" of the Génération du Concret, clad in blue jeans and baseball cap, pushing support for the SOPI coalition forged by the Wades' PDS party.

The stops on their journeys met with a tough, organized opposition, deriding the perceived autocratic tendancies of the Wades. The president was greeted at times by rocks and jeers from those in opposition red armbands, and chased out of some parts of the country according to reports.

Various media have called the election crutial for the political future of Karim Wade, seen as promoted to succeed his father.

Controversy regarding the legitimacy of the elections was heightened by the disqualifation of SOPI's slate in the Djiorbel area and subsequent court challenges to that process. Opponents will be keenly on the lookout for election fraud, having sat out the last local election because of its perception.