Reuters released an exclusive story today, reporting that “the Afghan central bank ran down most of its U.S. dollar cash reserves in the weeks before the Taliban took control of the country, according to an assessment prepared for Afghanistan’s international donors, exacerbating the current economic crisis.” The story is based on a “confidential, two-page brief, written in early September by senior international economic officials” which Reuters was allowed to read. According to that document, “the country’s severe cash shortage began before the Taliban took control of Kabul. It was written for the use of donors and lenders, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.”
Foreign exchange reserves in the central bank—Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB)—vaults in Kabul are “depleted, the CB cannot meet ... cash requests,” the document reports, and “the biggest source of the problem is the mismanagement at the central bank prior to the Taliban takeover.”
A few details of how the rundown allegedly occurred are reported in the Reuters wire, “Afghan Central Bank Drained Dollar Stockpile Before Kabul Fell – Document.” (https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/exclusive-afghan-central-bank-drained-dollar-stockpile-before-kabul-fell-2021-09-29/)
Citing three unnamed people “with direct knowledge of the matter,” Reuters goes on that “under the previous government, the central bank relied on cash shipments of $249 million, delivered roughly every three months in boxes of bound $100 notes and stored in the vaults of the central bank and presidential palace,” which money flow ended with the economic sanctions imposed after the Taliban established a government.
Reuters also reports that the central bank said two days ago that it had finalized a plan to meet the country’s foreign currency needs, but no details were given.
