Kabul – Once again, a member of the Supreme Council of the Central Bank of Afghanistan warned of the collapse of the country’s economy in an interview with Al Jazeera news channel, saying the solution to the crisis is now in New York.
In the interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, a member of the Supreme Council of the Central Bank of the country, said that Afghanistan is facing one of the most acute crises, referring to the frozen assets of the country in the US, saying that the antidote is locked in New York.
In addition, Mohammad Mehrabi, who is also a US citizen, says the US freezing of Afghan assets has worsened the living conditions of the people.
Moreover, he adds that the Afghan people are increasingly unable to buy basic goods, adding the country’s currency is depreciating immensely, and its fragile economy is already on the verge of collapse.
On the other hand, Mehrabi pointed out that the Central Bank of the country is supposed to conduct monetary policy operations to control the dollar at the Afghani rate and prevent inflation, however, in order to stabilize the market, the Central Bank is not able to do it without access to its US dollar reserves.
According to him, with the increase in demand for the dollar, the Afghan national currency has decreased by 30%, and as a result, the effective price of imported goods has increased by at least 20 to 30% over the past few months.
In the meantime, he noted that many Afghans suffer from hunger, poverty, and lack of access to basic goods and services. In short, he said: “The country is in a complete humanitarian crisis.”
In addition, Mehrabi suggested that the US should release $150 million a month from the country’s foreign exchange reserves on a conditional and supervised basis so as to prevent the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy and the humanitarian crisis in the country.
Meanwhile, the warnings come as the US has frozen $9.4 billion of the country’s assets and its securities bonds in US banks and set conditions for its release.
Afghanistan market has faced a severe shortage of dollars and basic needs prices have risen sharply since the US froze the country’s assets.
