Kabul, Dec 26 (AFP/APP):Afghan businessman Shoaib Barak is struggling to pay his workers and suppliers, unable to access funds from a banking system crippled by the freezing of the nation’s overseas assets.
They, in turn, can’t pay their bills — and so the country’s economic woes trickle down and hurt everyone along an unbroken chain of misery.
“I feel very ashamed,” said Barak, who until recently employed some 200 people across the country — mostly in his construction business.
“For me, for every Afghan, it’s really disgusting. I do not even have the ability to pay salaries for my staff.”
To avoid giving the Taliban access to Afghanistan’s reserves, Washington froze an estimated $10 billion held by the central bank abroad after the hardline Islamists seized power on August 15.
Equating to around half what the country’s economy produced last year, that move in turn starved banks used by Afghan businesses and citizens of access to dollars.
Ordinarily, the reserves could be dipped into to pay overdue government bills and development projects, but the freeze has trickled down to the rest of the economy.
“Just release the reserves,” Barak pleaded.
“If you have a problem with… the Taliban, don’t take revenge on the nation, the people.”