In January 2020, the then-Republic of Afghanistan had contracted the state-owned Polish Security Printing Works, or PWPW, to print 380 million banknotes equaling 10 billion afghanis for a contract worth more than $4 million. We’ve told DAB, and we know they’re trying to find solutions.”
#AFGHAN CURRENCY RATES SERIAL#
“People try to iron them, they play with serial numbers. “The condition of these bills, it’s terrible, and it’s getting worse by the day,” said Amin Jan Khosti, a veteran member of the money-changers union and chief of the foreign-exchange market, the Sarai Shahzadeh. (Afghanistan does not have its own mint.) But the international sanctions on working with the Taliban have left foreign printers spooked, plunging the country into a liquidity crisis as Afghans contend with a currency that is - literally - falling apart. In previous years, the Afghan central bank - known as Da Afghanistan Bank, or DAB - would withdraw annually 3 billion to 4 billion afghanis’ worth (about $33 million to $45 million) of decrepit banknotes and substitute them with new ones printed abroad. That has turned Afghanistan into a cash-only economy not only at a time when capital controls limit how much money you can withdraw from the bank but also when no new bills are entering into circulation to replace worn-out ones. Making matters worse, wide-ranging Western sanctions and Washington’s freeze of $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York mean that credit card and online payments are out. Half of the country’s 39 million people need humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
The slashing of international aid gouged 45% out of the country’s GDP, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund expect economic output to contract by a further one-third by the end of 2022. “That one even the central bank won’t take,” he said, shaking his head before putting it up to the sun for a closer look.Ī year after the Taliban careered into power, Afghanistan’s economy remains in crisis.
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