Zimbabwe has lost $150 billion due to the freezing of assets, the cessation of donor support and the blocking of business opportunities caused by sanctions imposed on the country since 2001, said the Vice President Constantino Chiwenga.
"The sanctions include financial restrictions and economic measures that distance Zimbabwe from the global financial system and prohibit the entry of capital mainly from the West," Chiwenga said following an anti-sanctions march organized on Wednesday in Harare.
He added that these sanctions also caused restrictions on exports and investments, development loans, financing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), payment support and commercial loans, he continued.
"This situation has hampered the country's economic growth and forced the gross domestic product (GDP) to contract drastically over the past two decades," lamented the official.
Western countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe after former President Robert Mugabe decided to expropriate white farmers' land without compensation and redistribute it to indigenous Zimbabweans.