Gabon’s revised 2026 budget maintains the authorities’ commitment to high public spending on capital projects, leaving the projected fiscal deficit wide, Fitch Ratings says. The revisions make fiscal targets more realistic, but a projected wider deficit and greater reliance on external commercial borrowing highlight financing challenges and will remain obstacles to the agreement of a new IMF programme. The partial use of the proceeds from the recent external private placement to repay official sector arrears and low execution of capital spending in 1H26, could mitigate these risks. [....]