Afghan Economy Remains Fragile After Three Years of Taliban Rule
Afghan women weave a carpet, Aug. 2024. Photo: X/ @japantimes
August 15, 2024 Hour: 8:54 am
U.S. sanctions such as the freezing of Central Bank assets have kept the country mired in economic crisis.
On Aug. 15, 2021, Taliban’s force entered Kabul and took over power as U.S.-led forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan. To celebrate the third anniversary of U.S.-led forces pulling out of Afghanistan, streets and buildings in the capital have been decorated with flags and slogans on the wall reading “congratulation to freedom” and “Afghan nation defeated America”.
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“That day I heard that the Taliban was going to enter the city and I saw through the window that people on the street were running home in a panic,” reminisced Mohammadajan, a street vendor in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.
But Mohammadajan soon discovered that things did not develop in the bad direction, and Afghanistan finally ushered in three years of relative peace. “The security situation here has improved 100 percent, and the number of beggars and thieves on the street has also gradually decreased,” he said.
According to the Global Terrorism Index, terror deaths fell by 519 in Afghanistan in 2023, an 81 percent improvement. This was the first year since 2019 that Afghanistan has not been the country most impacted by terrorism.
“Security has improved compared to the past. Our shop is open until 12:00 midnight and no one bothers us,” Hussain, a dry fruit shopkeeper in Kabul said.
Although the security situation has improved significantly, the Afghan people are facing severe economic challenges. Over the past two years, Afghanistan’s economy has been characterized by a tumultuous downturn, with a staggering 26 percent contraction in real GDP, according to the World Bank.
Currently, turnover has declined 50 percent, said Hussain. “Over the past three years, we don’t have any benefit.” Due to economic downturn, people’s purchasing power has continued to decline, and prices have also fallen.
“Now violence has decreased and people were relieved to some extent. But we can not ignore reconstruction and modernization, aspirations of the Afghan people,” said Najibullah Arman, an editor of a news organization.
Following the U.S. military withdrawal, Washington has slapped sanctions on the new Afghan administration, freezing Afghanistan’s central bank assets worth billions of U.S. dollars and thus plunging the country into an economic crisis. The sanctions made it difficult for foreign capital to enter Afghanistan, resulting in delay in launch of large-scale investment projects in Afghanistan.
“How can Afghans actually live with these sanctions? I think this is unfair.” Arman said, adding that peace is hard-won, and now ordinary people’s wish is to find a job and live in peace.
teleSUR/ JF Source: Xinhua
