The financial crisis in Afghanistan leaves millions of people at risk of starvation

Afghanistan’s currency has plummeted by nearly a quarter since the Taliban seized power, adding to the financial crisis that has left millions of people in a foreign country facing starvation.

Afghans have dropped to 105 dollars a dollar from about 80 before a brave Islamic group arrived. August victory, making it one of the most successful investments in the last six months. It is the second in Turkey, where it is lira was beaten and Recep Erdogan’s unorthodox economic policy.

In Afghanistan, removing the US and its allies cut money which created 80 per cent of government spending, suspended more than $ 9bn in central banks and imposed sanctions that halted the financial system. Banks are failing to function properly and government employees such as doctors and teachers are not paid.

The weakening of the afghana has led international aid agencies to consider the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, pushing for prices of essential commodities beyond the way of desperate Afghans. More than half of the people are in contact with it lack of food, a growing catastrophe caused by frostbite.

Mohammad Farid, a curly hair seller in Kabul, sells so little that his small business collapses. Its beautiful appearance of golden and red apples is slowly deteriorating, being usually unsold for four days.

“Afghanistan is a mess,” he said, adding that he would have enjoyed the end of the conflict had it not been for the economic downturn. “I wanted it the other way around – where there would be jobs, business and money.”

In the 20 years between the US and Nato since 2001, Afghanistan’s economy has begun to decline relying on outside help and the dollar. The Greenbacks were evacuated and the Da Afghanistan Bank, a central bank, traded frequently to help Afghans.

The risks mean that Afghan people, businesses and government agencies have been deprived of funds, foreign clients and international donors, and increasing what the IMF expects to be. 30 percent economic decline.

The UN and the US last month announced that they would not be allowed to allow humanitarian aid in the country. But critics say the sanctions are punishing ordinary Afghan people and not Taliban.

It is “the economic crisis in the West that creates the need for humanitarian aid,” said Graeme Smith, chief consultant for the International Crisis Group, a think tank. “Having a large bank is an important part of the modern state economy. The simplest thing is to just let the DAB do their job.”

Shah Mehrabi, a professor of economics at Montgomery College in Maryland, who sits on the DAB board, said the US should allow the transfer of at least $ 150m a month to allow the central bank to resume cash sales and set prices. “Why not allow this process to establish a new level of interdependence [in the] DAB, what organization have we been in for 20 years? Why do you continue to undermine the organization? ” he said.

Merchants are found all over Kabul, they live near street lights or they fill the markets. Several reported that the dollar was being exported to Pakistan, which was also affected by the sharp fall in currency.

“When Pakistanis see that their currency is falling, they try to buy dollars,” said 22-year-old Mohammad Mirzai. “In Afghanistan, there are no laws. They are buying in Afghanistan and selling dollars in Pakistan.”

Researchers say that Afghan people may be exacerbated by the growing problem, but the problem of access to finance has reinforced the need for funding.

Charlie Robertson, a London-based economist at Renaissance Capital, a financial bank, said that in some cases the economic downturn – such as in the former Soviet Union or Zimbabwe – central banks have used printing presses to repay their loans.

But DAB relied on foreign companies to print bills and had no equipment to do it on their own. “For a country in Afghanistan it is amazing that the decline has been small,” Robertson said.

Although low inflation has helped prevent hyperinflation, rising prices are still growing essential foods that you cannot afford, increasing the risk of starvation.

Hamidullah Ibrahim, a 61-year-old stockbroker, complained that flour and oil prices had risen sharply. “Everything,” he said, “has gone backwards.”

Additional reports of Fazelminallah Qazizai in Kabul