Afghanistan: the Taliban have access to 0.1% or 0.2% of the country's financial reserves - France 24

Washington (AFP)

The Taliban have access to 0.1% or 0.2% of the total reserves of Afghanistan, said Wednesday the president of the Central Bank of Afghanistan (DAB), who left the country, ensuring that the international reserves of the country "n 'have never been in danger ".

DAB's reserves were "approximately $ 9 billion last week. But that does not mean that DAB physically held $ 9 billion in its safe," Ajmal Ahmady said in a series of tweets on Wednesday.

He specifies that the assets, in particular liquidity and gold, are "all held in accounts of the Fed (the American Central Bank), the BIS (the Bank for international settlements, a kind of bank for central banks, editor's note) ), RAMP (program developed within the Treasury of the World Bank and partner of many central banks) or other banks ".

"We had a program with the IMF and the (US) Treasury that controlled the assets. No money was stolen from any reserve account," he says.

Ajmal Ahmady expects the Taliban to put in place capital controls and limit access to the dollar.

According to its "base case", the currency will then depreciate, "inflation will rise" and "this will hurt the poor as food prices rise".

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, ravaged by 40 years of conflict.

International aid is crucial for the country.

Afghans rely on remittances sent by family members living abroad.

But Western Union announced the suspension since Monday of money transfers to Afghanistan.

The American Central Bank (Fed), in March 2021 in Washington Daniel SLIM AFP / Archives

"One of our priorities is the safety and well-being of our customers and our partners who are on the front line", explained the bank in a tweet.

"Due to the current situation in Afghanistan and the constraints weighing on our agents, we have temporarily suspended other transactions to the country," she adds, acknowledging that this is detrimental to the Afghan people.

According to World Bank data, remittances to Afghanistan amounted to nearly $ 789 million last year.

In 2020, the country's GDP was estimated at 19.8 billion.

Ajmal Ahmadi also indicated that Kabul was to receive on 23 August next around 340 million dollars from the International Monetary Fund for the issuance of new special drawing rights.

Afghanistan's trade balance Gal ROMA AFP

"I don't know if this allocation will continue," he explains.

The IMF was not immediately able to confirm this information.

© 2021 AFP