Status: 08/19/2021 9:31 a.m.
The International Monetary Fund has suspended Afghanistan’s access to aid loans and other resources. The US is freezing Afghanistan’s currency reserves. The Taliban face serious financial worries.
After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended access for those in power in Kabul to IMF resources because of the uncertain political situation. “There is currently confusion within the international community about the recognition of a government in Afghanistan, which means that the country has no access to special drawing rights (SDRs) or other IMF resources,” said an IMF spokeswoman.
The Special Drawing Right is a reserve credit introduced by the IMF for IMF members, a right to freely usable currencies. This is intended to improve liquidity and financial leeway among the member states.
An allocation of $ 650 billion in Special Drawing Rights to all eligible IMF members is planned for Monday. The Taliban will then have no access to the Afghan stake, which, according to Adschmal Akhmady, head of the Afghan central bank, who has fled abroad, amounts to $ 340 million.
IMF loan program suspended
A $ 370 million loan program from the IMF, which was intended to boost Afghanistan’s economy during the Corona crisis, has also been suspended.
According to Achmady, the Afghan central bank’s foreign exchange reserves amount to around nine billion dollars. Much of the money is outside of Afghanistan, Achmady said on Twitter. Seven billion dollars alone are in the US central bank. According to Achmady, the Taliban only had access to up to 0.2 percent of the currency reserves.
A US government official said on Monday that the Afghan government’s central bank reserves, which are located in the US, would not be made available to the Taliban. Several US media have reported that access to currency reserves in American bank accounts has already been blocked.
Afghanistan dependent on aid money
As one of the poorest countries in the world, Afghanistan is heavily dependent on aid funds. According to the World Bank, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 was $ 19.81 billion, of which aid funds made up nearly 43 percent.
However, after the Taliban came to power, several countries announced that they would freeze aid funds. Germany, one of the most important donor countries, also stopped its payments. The lack of aid is likely to exacerbate the situation again, said Katrin Kamin, head of the Trade Task Force at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), in an interview with tagesschau.de.