The International Monetary Fund announced on Wednesday that it was suspending aid to Afghanistan due to the uncertainty surrounding the status of the rulers in Kabul after the takeover of the country by the Taliban.
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As always, the IMF is guided by the views of the international community
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a spokesperson told AFP.
"There is currently a lack of clarity within the international community regarding the recognition of a government in Afghanistan, as a result of which the country cannot access SDRs (special drawing rights, note) or other IMF resources ”
. The IMF has 190 member countries which are divided over Afghanistan.
After two decades of trying to defeat the Taliban, Western powers are faced with the difficult choice of establishing or not establishing relations with the fundamentalist group that now rules Afghanistan.
Canada has already announced that it will not recognize the Taliban.
France has, for its part, listed five preconditions.
Russia, China and Turkey welcomed the insurgents' first public statements.
Last tranche of aid
The IMF was to pay a final tranche of aid to Kabul under a program approved on November 6, 2020 for a total amount of $ 370 million. This 42-month (three-and-a-half-year) program resulted in an immediate disbursement of $ 115 million. A second tranche of aid amounting to $ 149.4 million was disbursed in early June, following an initial review of the progress of the program. Some $ 105.6 million remained to be paid under this aid plan, granted under the Extended Credit Facility, the objective of which was to support the economy hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The President of the Afghan Central Bank, Ajmal Ahmadi, who left the country on Sunday, also indicated on Wednesday that Kabul was to receive on 23 August next around 340 million dollars from the IMF for the issuance of new rights. special prints.
“I do not know if this allocation will continue,”
he then said in a tweet.
SDRs are not currency and have no physical existence. Their value is based on a basket of five major international currencies: the dollar, the euro, the pound, the renminbi or yuan, and the yen. And once issued, SDRs can be used either as a reserve currency that stabilizes the value of the domestic currency, or converted into stronger currencies to finance investments. Afghanistan, extremely dependent on international aid, is one of the poorest countries in the world.
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