Kabul: Afghanistan’s central bank governor says that the country has some $9 billion in reserves abroad and not in physical cash inside the country.
Ajmal Ahmady, the head of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that the majority of that — some $7 billion — is being held in U.S. Federal Reserve bonds, assets and gold.
Ahmady says Afghanistan’s holding of physical U.S. dollars “is close to zero” as the country did not receive a planned cash shipment amid the Taliban offensive that swept the country last week.
“The next shipment never arrived,” he wrote. “Seems like our partners had good intelligence as to what was going to happen.”
He noted the lack of U.S. dollars likely will see the afghani depreciate and inflation rise, hurting the poor in the country. Getting access to those reserves likely will be complicated by the U.S. government considering the Taliban a sanctioned terror group.
The “Taliban won militarily – but now have to govern,” he wrote. “It is not easy.”
