From Saturday August 14, on the eve of the fall of Kabul, residents rushed to banks and ATMs to withdraw their assets. Without success. Sunday morning, a few hours before the fall of the capital, endless lines formed in front of banking establishments, which stopped distributing money to account holders. They have since been closed. And Western Union, which provides transfers from abroad, no longer works.
The local economy operates mainly through cash payments. But, for the moment, the daily life of the population in Afghanistan has not yet been too turned upside down by the closing of the counters. “Only those who went abroad or those who live there are bothered today, because their assets in Afghan banks may be lost forever”, explains Ahmad (a pseudonym), reached by telephone in Kabul. Entrepreneur, he does not trust Afghan financial institutions, “The situation is so uncertain”.
But how long can the country last, with a financial system almost completely frozen? One by one, Afghanistan’s international funding is drying up. International aid, which represents 42% of gross domestic product, is mostly suspended, the International Monetary Fund has frozen its payments and the US authorities have blocked transfers of dollars.
Until then, the country received, every week, a shipment of dollars, transported from the United States, drawn from the reserves held by the Afghan central bank, the DAB. Just before the fall of Kabul, the US administration stopped the last shipment of sealed pallets of greenbacks. ” Friday [13 août], I received a call informing me that there would be no more sending of dollars, whereas one was expected on Sunday, the day of the fall of Kabul ”, explains on Twitter Ajmal Ahmady, the acting governor of the DAB, who fled the country on Sunday 15, aboard a military plane.
“Sand in the gears”
These dollars are however essential to the functioning of the Afghan economy, explains Warren Coats, an American who was adviser to the DAB, between 2002 and 2015. Each week, the central bank organizes an auction of dollars against Afghanis, the local currency. Foreign exchange bureaus from all over the country come here to stock up. The American currency is thus sent to the provinces, used to finance trade with neighboring countries – and to keep the savings of the richest inhabitants.
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