in Afghanistan banks are running short of cash.
People can barely afford basics like oil or rice and
some have gone so far as to sell their daughters or their organs in order to feed their
families.
Now for one bag of rice,
afghans will have to pay to about 2000 and 100 apps.
That's almost $30 a price that is off limits to most afghans.
Afghanistan was already one of the world's poorest countries,
but since the Taliban takeover in august,
the economy has collapsed even further and the country is now facing near universal
poverty.
Nearly 95% of all households don't have enough food.
According to the World Food Program,
a crisis exacerbated by years,
long drought as well as the war in Ukraine for the pushing up global prices for grain and
food and sanctions on the Taliban have made it difficult to send money in
and out of the country.
This is what a country on the brink of universal poverty looks like.
Despite billions of dollars in aid that the international community has pledged to
Afghanistan in just a year,
the prices of basic goods here have risen dramatically.
Take this bottle of oil,
it's refined sunflower oil,
It now costs 850 apps.
That's about $9 twice as much as a cost last year.
One big reason prices have gone up.
Local currency has lost value,
making it hard for businesses to operate.
The fluctuation of the currency,
It is affecting our business because it is not fixed.
It is not stable.
Habibullah Amini runs a detergent business in Kabul,
most of the raw materials he uses for manufacturing the products he sells in Afghanistan come
from outside the country.
He says business is down 30 since the fall of the US backed republic in
august the challenge that we are facing importing
the raw materials because we specifically cannot transfer the
T t to the banks outside of the country because of the sanctions.
Although Western sanctions don't apply to businesses,
sanctions on Taliban rulers mean,
foreign banks are reluctant to carry out transactions with Afghanistan.
The economic crisis is being felt by everyone in recent months.
Some have taken the drastic decision of selling their organs.
Dr Naseer Ahmad conducts transport operations in the city of Harar for
a kidney.
He says,
donors and buyers can agree on a price that varies between the equivalent of 2000 to
$4000.
40 year old Ghulam Hazrat sold his kidney for around
$2,300.
People who do have money in bank accounts have been lining up outside banks.
Many have to wait days or weeks to get cash out since the central bank's introduction
of withdrawal limits due to cash shortages,
the assets of Afghanistan.
Central banks have been frozen.
The majority of those assets or around $7 billion us
soil.
That has made it almost impossible for the Afghan Central Bank to prop
up the local currency,
the Afghani,
which has lost substantial value.
Afghanistan had long been dependent on foreign assistance and aid which until last
year funded most of the country's public spending
in august when the Taliban took over control of the country.
Foreign financial assistance which essentially essentially funded most of the
previous government vanished overnight and even humanitarian organizations are still struggling
to get money into the country.
No country has yet recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government,
partly because of their crackdown on basic freedoms.
Their harsh treatment of women in particular has drawn criticism since the
Taliban took over the country.
Girls have been banned from secondary school and the Taliban's decision to restrict
women from work has also had ripple effects on the country's productivity levels.
A report by the U.N.
estimated the loss of female employment could cost up to $1 billion 5%
of the country's GDP.
The Taliban government says that more than eight it wants sanctions lifted and the Central Bank's frozen
assets released.
In the meantime,
it is looking elsewhere to prop up the economy.
Afghanistan has witnessed a rise in public cultivation and the government is
encouraging international investment in sectors like mining and transit.
But a combination of factors is making it hard to restart the economy.
We have had four years of consecutive droughts in this area.
We have the legacy of the conflict of course and but also we have now a major economic
crisis as the U.
S.
And others way releasing Afghanistan's foreign assets and international organizations.
Think of ways to address the country's economic crisis.
Hundreds of thousands remain unemployed,
queues at food distribution centers stretch on,
and afghans try to make ends meet as the economy continues to spiral.