PESHAWAR: The Governor of the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) Ajmal Ahmady warned against rise in Inflation as the Taliban have access to just 1% or 0.2% of assets out the total of $9 billion DAB’s reserves.
Earlier the Biden administration also warned that DAB’s assets will not be available to the Taliban as most of $9bn is held in the United States. Ahmady in a Twitter post also said that it is unlikely that the US will resume the shipments of dollars and aids after the group took control of seized the country by force.
Releasing details on his Twitter accounts, Mr Ahmady said that according to the bank’s international reserves, the total assets were more than $9 billion a few weeks ago, but that does not mean that the bank’s has $9 billion in cash as by international standards most of the assets are invested and secured.
IMF loan
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently approved $650 billion, with the first tranche of about $340 million were to be disbursed in August, but it is unclear whether it will be released after the Taliban seized the country. “Given that the Taliban are not yet on the international recognition list, it is expected that these assets will be frozen and inaccessible to the Taliban,” he said. He added that he cannot imagine a scenario where the Treasury gives the Taliban access to such funding, so the Taliban will have access to hardly 0.1 to 0.2% of Afghanistan’s total international reserves.
‘Hurt the poor’
Ahmed said that without the approval of the Treasury, it is unlikely that any of the donors will support the Taliban. Adding that, the cash flow is close to zero as the security situation has deteriorated. Ahmady warned that such a situation will hurt the war-affected people of Afghanistan.
He said that before the Taliban’s control over Kabul on Saturday, it was hoped that a large consignment of US dollars would be received, but it was not forthcoming and citizens were transferring their money to dollars due to which Afghan currency dropped to 86 against US dollar.
Ahmady said that the Taliban and their supporters should have realized now that after seizing the capital, they have to govern the country which is not an easy job. The DAB governor warned that problems will further increase, inflation will rise and it will hurt the poor as food prices are already on the rise.