Afghan currency slides, prices surge as economy worsens

HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) — The value of Afghanistan’s currency is tumbling, exacerbating an already severe economic crisis and deepening poverty in a country where more than half the population already doesn’t have enough to eat.

The afghani lost more than 11% of its value against the U.S. dollar in the space of a day earlier this week, before recouping somewhat. But the market remains volatile, and the devaluation is already impacting Afghans.

Afghanistan’s economy was already troubled when the international community froze billions of dollars’ worth of Afghanistan’s assets abroad and stopped all international funding to the country after the Taliban assumed power in mid-August amid a chaotic U.S. and NATO troop withdrawal. The consequences have been dire for a country heavily dependent on foreign aid.

Afghanistan was also slated to access about $450 million on Aug. 23 from the International Monetary Fund, but the IMF blocked the release because of a “lack of clarity” about the country’s new rulers. Since then, international envoys have warned of a looming economic meltdown and humanitarian catastrophe.

“People have no money and the prices have gone up,” said Sayed Umid, a 28-year-old shopkeeper selling basic food items such as rice, beans and pulses in a main shopping street in the western Afghan city of Herat.

“Since this morning I haven’t had a single customer,” he said. With rent to pay on his shop and home expenses, he worries he can no longer make ends meet.

Khan Afzal Hadawal, former acting governor of Afghanistan’s central bank, said that the sanctions on the Taliban and the freezing of Afghanistan's reserve funds "have put the country’s aid-dependent economy on the verge of full economic collapse, leading to historic depreciation of currency,”

“The...