Singapore: Afghanistan’s currency reserves mostly held in foreign accounts and may not be accessible by the ruling Taliban, leaving the country with very low on the dollar, Ajmal Ahmady, which led to the arrest of Kabul’s central bank, said.
Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) controls about $ 9 billion, about $ 7 billion of which is held as a mixture of cash, gold, bonds and other investments in the US Federal Reserve, Ahmady, the governor of acting, who are now fleeing in Afghanistan, said on Indonesia , Most of the rest are in other international accounts and in the bank for international settlements, the bank for central banks based in Switzerland, and is not physically in the dome dab, he said – leaving about 0.2% or less of the total that can be accessed by the Taliban.
“Given the large current account deficit of Afghanistan, DAB relies on getting the physical delivery of cash every few weeks,” he said.
“The remaining amount of the cash is close to zero due to the termination of deliveries as the security situation deteriorates.” No international reserves “are never compromised” and “no money stolen from the reserve account whatever,” added Ahmady.
A US government official also told Reuters that no Afghan government assets held in the United States will be available for the Taliban.
The Taliban, now in control of Kabul, said the Treasury, the Public Facilities and the Office of Government are the property of the nation.
Ahmady said he had been told that the Taliban ask the bank staff about the location of assets, but added that they should have been foreseen, it is not possible to access it.
He now expects the local currency, Afghani, fell when the central bank can not provide enough money to the local bank and for the Taliban to use capital controls to prevent the outflow.
“Inflation will rise as the currency pass-through is very high,” he said.
“This will hurt the poor due to rising food prices.”