Taliban rule: Economic experts demand that the US release Afghan billions

Almost a year after the return of the radical Islamic Taliban to power in Afghanistan, dozens of economic experts have called on the US government to release frozen billions from the Afghan central bank.

The withholding of the $7 billion (6.85 billion euros) worsens the economic and humanitarian crisis in the country, the 71 economists and development experts said in a letter to US President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen published on Wednesday.

The authors of the letter, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz in economics and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, expressed their "deeply concerned about the economic and humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Afghanistan and in particular the role of US policy".

Without access to its foreign exchange, the Afghan central bank cannot carry out its “normal, basic functions”.

"As expected, without a functioning central bank, the Afghan economy collapsed."

“70 percent of Afghan households cannot meet their basic needs”

The Afghan central bank's foreign reserves would play a central role in the country's economy - regulating the money supply, stabilizing the currency and financing imports - mainly food and oil.

The economic experts painted a bleak picture of the situation in Afghanistan.

"70 percent of Afghan households cannot meet their basic needs," they wrote in their letter.

“Some 22.8 million people – more than half the population – face acute food insecurity and three million children are at risk of malnutrition.”

After the Taliban took power after the western troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the US government had frozen seven billion dollars from the Afghan central bank that were stored in the US.

In February, the Biden administration said half of that would go to help Afghans in need.

However, the money must really reach the population.

The other half of the frozen central bank money is to be withheld for relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The economic experts condemned this in their letter to the US government.

"The entire $7 billion belongs to the Afghan people," they wrote.

"Returning less than the full amount undermines the recovery of a devastated economy."

In their letter, the experts also address two billion dollars in Afghan central bank funds that have been frozen by Germany, Great Britain and the United Arab Emirates.