The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that Afghanistan will no longer have access to its resources due to lack of clarity over the recognition of its government.
This comes after the Taliban takeover in the country last week.
“As is always the case, IMF is guided by the views of international community,” IMF declared.
IMF
However, as part of IMF’s global response to economic shock, funds of over $370 million from the IMF had been arranged to arrive in Afghanistan on August 23rd.
Also, Afghanistan’s access to IMF reserves in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) assets which is designated to supplement government reserves have been restricted.
Prior to the SDR asset restriction, an official from the United States (US) government has disclosed to the media that any asset that Afghanistan has in US will be made inaccessible to Taliban.
Meanwhile, the US congress had requested for assurances that the Taliban would receive no US-backed support through a letter to the United States Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen.
Signatories of IMF expressed their concerns on the likelihood of the SDR to allocate virtually half a billion dollars to a regime which is known for causing terrific actions against the US and her allies.
The governor of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, Ajmal Ahmady, announced earlier that the US has reduced the nation’s assets of nearly $7 billion in US Federal Reserve.
The head of the Central Bank who was compelled to flee the country during the weekend, disclosed in a tweet that Afghanistan’s total reserve is nearly $9 billion as of last week. He further indicated that, in line with international standards, most of Afghanistan’s reserve is held in safe, liquid assets especially US Treasury Bonds and gold offshore.
Ajmal Ahmady therefore averred, “given that the Taliban are still on international sanction lists, it is expected that such assets will be frozen and not accessible to Taliban.”
Moreover, only about 0.1 – 0.2 per cent of Afghanistan total reserve will be available to the Taliban, according to the Governor of their Central bank. He described the amount as inadequate to the Taliban.
Mr. Ajmal Ahmady declared that the Afghan currency, Afghani, has fallen quickly overtime. He explained that the limitation on shipments of physical dollar contributed to the depreciation of the Afghani.
The Governor tweeted also, “I believe local banks have told customers that they cannot return their dollars because [Da Afghanistan Bank] has not supplied banks with dollars”.
Consequently, Mr. Ahmady indicated that the Central Bank is unable to supply local banks with dollars not because it has been cleared out, but because all dollars have been frozen in international accounts.
A UN published report uncovered that Taliban derives its financing mainly from activities including drug trafficking and opium poppy production, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and also mineral exploitation. It further indicated that, the Taliban also collect taxes in areas that they dominate.
Western Union, a money transfer institution has also declared its suspension of money transfer services to Afghanistan until a later date.
