(Ecofin Agency) - Last year, the government of Zimbabwe has paid $134 million as compensation to white farmers affected by its Fast Track Land Reform Programme. This was told Reuters by Patrick Chinamasa (photo), the country’s minister of finance who added that the payment widened the State’s budget deficit.

According to the same source, the government complied with one of the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to provide new funding to Zimbabwe.

Launched in 2000, the government’s land reform led to the expropriation of white farmers from their lands which were then given out to black nationals. This, World Bank estimates, pushed the nation’s agricultural output down 30%.

Espoir Olodo