Zimbabwe economy in a deep hole, says US envoy

American Envoy Harry Thomas Jnr said Zimbabwe's economy already at its decades, will get worse before it gets better with the US envoy saying it will take time before liberalizing reforms turn net positive and Harare needs to bite more such bullets for a sustainable turnaround.

He urged the government to stop blaming sanctions and get its house in order saying the economy was in a deep hole. The diplomat said unless and until the government comes up with sound economic policies, strong anti-corruption and transparency policies, the southern African nation's crisis was not going to end anytime soon.

Thomas Jnr 1 conceded that the illegal sanctions his country imposed are hurting ordinary Zimbabweans and admitted the US never carried out a cost benefit analysis of the ruinous embargo.

Thomas Jnr 1 said the sanctions imposed on 98 individuals and 68 entities may have come with "unintended consequences."

Some local businessmen took the ambassador to task outlining how they were failing to do business with US companies because of the sanctions with former Hurungwe West legislator Temba Mliswa and Youth Advocacy for Reform and Democracy (Yard) leader telling the US envoy that sanctions were hurting ordinary Zimbabweans. Ambassador Thomas Jnr is the first envoy to admit that sanctions may.