Washington / Kabul (dpa) – According to media reports, the US government and the central bank have frozen the majority of Afghanistan’s currency reserves. It is a matter of not letting the plants fall into the hands of the Taliban, quoted the “Washington Post” circles from the US Treasury Department, among others. The previous Afghan central bank chief Adschmal Ahmadi, who fled the country after the Taliban came to power, said on Twitter on Wednesday that around seven billion dollars (six billion euros) of the reserves are in custody at the US central bank. Another two billion dollars are therefore invested elsewhere internationally.
The Taliban would therefore only have access to up to 0.2 percent of the currency reserves, he wrote. Because significantly more US dollars have been spent in Afghanistan than received, the central bank was also dependent on regular deliveries of US cash. According to Ahmadi, however, the central bank now has hardly any US dollars because supplies have been stopped in view of the advance of the Taliban. The shortage of US dollars could lead to capital controls, limits on withdrawals and a drop in the rate of the local currency.
The “Wall Street Journal” recently reported that the US government will also endeavor to block an already planned increase in Afghanistan’s reserves at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by around 450 million US dollars. The IMF then announced on Wednesday that the organization would be guided by the opinion of the international community. Because there is currently no clarity regarding the recognition of the Afghan government, the country cannot access IMF funds until further notice, it said.
The Taliban have long been subject to US sanctions which, among other things, make international financial transactions extremely difficult. The Afghan government has so far been relatively dependent on international aid. These are now likely to be used by donor countries to exert pressure on the Taliban. The USA and Germany, among others, have already signaled this.
– .
