Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Government Afghanistan below Taliban faced with an inevitable economic threat: the collapse of the banking system. The reason is, it has been almost two weeks that banks in Afghanistan have remained closed so that people have no access to cash since the Taliban took power.
“No one has money,” an Afghan central bank employee told CNN Business, Friday (27/8).
The employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said many families did not have enough money for their daily expenses, while salary payments had been stopped.
All this raises the specter of a severe economic and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, just two weeks after the Taliban took control of the country.
The main challenge that remains is Afghanistan’s dependence on foreign countries and international aid. Meanwhile, most outside access has been blocked since the fall of Kabul.
According to the World Bank, 75 percent of public spending in Afghanistan has come from grants.
Although the Taliban ordered banks and other services to reopen, banks are still closed because they are running out of money, a central bank source said.
“Once you open a bank, it exposes how fragile this system is,” said a person familiar with Afghanistan’s economic situation.
The Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce warns of the potential collapse of Afghanistan’s banking industry. Afghanistan’s central bank, as the cornerstone of the financial system, appears to be in internal turmoil.
“Afghanistan and its banking sector are in an ‘existential crisis’ with banking sector collapse imminent,” reads the August 23 memo sent by the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce.
The memo was written by a banking and finance working group consisting of Afghanistan’s main commercial banks, customers and investors.
The memo said the heads of Afghanistan’s central bank refused any form of communication with the banking industry. Requests for access to cash were also not granted.
Therefore, the Afghan banking group is said to have decided to close all banks on August 15 and have not reopened due to fears of large withdrawals from customers.
(well / vws)
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