The Minister of Finance Patrick Chinamasa has said he is in talks with the US Department over the issue of sanctions which he maintains are the main cause of the economic challenges affecting the country. The Minister said this during the mid term budget review in the Parliament yesterday.
“The US accepts that they have sanctions against us,” said Chinamasa.
Zimbabwe was put under sanctions which the Government has referred to as “illegal sanctions” since 2003.
The Minister also said that the Domestic Borrowings of 2016 were $1.4 billion against a target of $150 million due to Drought and Revenue Underperformance.
“Our debt by December 2016 is $11.3 billion, of that $7.3 billion is external and $4 billion is domestic,”
Chinamasa said.
The Minister also said that the debt that included 5.2 Billion arrears was a challenge in his Ministry. Recently the International Monetary Fund (IMF) denied Zimbabwe’s right to borrow citing that the country had to clear its debt before it borrows more.
Although the Zimbabwean government blames sanctions for the economic downfall, the US has denied sanctions, which it calls “targeted sanctions”, as responsible siting corruption and poor governance in the Zimbabwean government. The US states that it gave sanctions to Zimbabwe due to declining Human Rights whilst the Zimbabwean Government maintains that this was after a”successful” Land Reform Program.
