Afghanistan Economy 5-11-24

Afghanistan is a failed State. UN aid is $2.9B. 

U.S. taxpayers may be funding the Taliban and Afghan terror groups, watchdog says. The U.S. has provided more than $8 billion in aid to Afghanistan since the chaotic withdrawal of American troops in August 2021.

The Taliban also obtained financial resources from Pakistan. In 1997 alone, after the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, Pakistan gave $30 million in aid and a further $10 million for government wages. From 1996 to 2001 the Al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri became a state within the Taliban state.

Nominal GDP $7.43B, Per capita GDP $397, Population 42,239,854, Debt $3.4B, Debt to GDP 46%

Inflation 30%, Unemployment 15.4%, Land area 252,071 sq miles, Arable land 12%, Imports $7.8B, Exports $1.9B, Trade Deficit 5.9B, Clean water is available to 42%. Sanitation is 27%. Urban 24%, Rural 76%.

According to UNESCO, Afghanistan is the only country in the world to formally prohibit women from getting an education. The World Bank has warned this ban is hurting the country's prospects for economic growth. Already, about two-thirds of households in Afghanistan don't have enough income to meet their basic needs.

The share of trade was estimated at 51% of GDP in 2021 (World Bank, latest data available). Afghanistan traditionally exports items with low value, such as dried fruit, carpets, cotton, cereals, and non-alcoholic beverages. Its main items of import include wheat, peat, textiles, and petroleum products.

Poppy seed exports for Opium production was 9-14% of GDP before the Taliban banned it.

Poppy cultivation has dropped by around 95 percent – from 233,000 hectares at the end of 2022 to 10,800 in 2023 – since the Taliban officially banned poppy farming in April 2022, according to the report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).Nov 5, 2023.

Poppy seed production continues in many other countries and is used to produce opium as a pain reliever in medications, but is also consumed as an addictive drug.

Most important is the cotton textile industry. The country also produces rayon and acetate fibres. Other manufactured products are cement, sugar, vegetable oil, furniture, soap, shoes, and woolen textiles.

Afghanistan has a 6-3-3 formal education structure. As detailed on EPDC's Afghanistan country page, Primary school has an official entry age of seven and a duration of six grades. Secondary school is divided into two cycles: lower secondary consists of grades 7 - 9, and upper secondary consists of grades 10 - 12.

Pupils are educated in Dari or Pashto. It is compulsory for children aged 6 to 15, so from primary and lower secondary education. Literacy is 37%.

Religious education is the responsibility of clerics at mosques, while the government provides free academic education at state schools. From age 7 to age 13 pupils attend primary schools where they learn the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic and their national culture.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader