afghanistan economy

The FT’s south Asia correspondent Ben Parkin explains how Afghanistan’s economy has changed in the year since US forces left the country and the Taliban retook control of the government.   

Clips from CBS, BBC 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

For further reading:

The Taliban’s black gold: militants seize on coal to reboot economy

Life under the Taliban: ‘what matters is that we’re hungry’

The Taliban’s new order: ‘We’ll introduce a system for the world’ 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

On Twitter, follow Benjamin Parkin (@b_parkyn) and Michela Tindera (@mtindera07) 

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Afghanistan economy was already in bad shape, with heavy reliance on foreign dollars, prior to the collapse of the government and the takeover by the Taliban. Since the fall, things have gotten even worse, with inflation accelerating and GDP plunging. There are multiple factors at work, though the main one is the cutting off of outside sources of dollars. On this episode we speak with Ajmal Ahmady, the former head of Afghanistan's central bank, on the difficult situation, and how the economy might operate going forward.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the last week and a half, the world has watched in shock at the dizzying speed of the collapse in Afghanistan. Events are still unfolding, so the future remains extremely uncertain. One former official who has been outspoken in recent days is Ajmal Ahmady, who was running Afghanistan's central bank on an interim basis right up until the government fell. On this episode, we speak with Ahmady about what operations at the bank looked like in relatively normal times, how events transpired in the government's final days, and the future of Afghanistan's economy under Taliban rule.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.