Afghanistan's economy will collapse sharply this year

It is a number that makes the lot of many Afghans even worse: the country's economy will collapse sharply this year, and the International Monetary Fund is forecasting a decline of up to 30 percent. The rule of the Taliban began not only with the enforcement of their interpretation of Sharia law, but also with long lines in front of the banks, skyrocketing prices in the markets, rapidly rising inflation and the collapse of the currency. In the country of around 37 million people, poverty and hunger are widespread as well as fear, and the government is running out of money. Foreign donors, above all the USA, Germany and other Europeans, had financed around 80 percent of the government's spending before the Taliban came to power. Now the help is completely stopped. The Taliban have no access to the currency reserves of around nine billion US dollars because they are located abroad. The fundamentalists have long been subject to sanctions which, among other things, make international financial transactions extremely difficult. Now an economic and humanitarian crisis looms due to the destruction caused by the war, the millions of internally displaced persons, cuts in development aid and the loss of local spending due to withdrawn foreign troops. More than a third of people already have to live on less than two dollars a day. The economy has grown rapidly since the fall of the Taliban 20 years ago. However, this was mainly due to the international support. According to the World Bank, it accounted for more than 40 percent of the total economic output of 20 billion US dollars in 2020. Despite the aid, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world according to a United Nations development index and ranks 169 out of 189 countries. It currently looks like it's going down now. Afghanistan could be a rich country because it has many coveted mineral resources such as lithium, copper, rare earths and oil. According to the UN, around half of the population lives in poverty and is dependent on support, including around ten million children. The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that around 14 million people do not have enough to eat. The number could continue to rise as land suffers a severe drought. The decline in living standards resulting from the crisis threatens to drive millions of people into extreme poverty, according to the IMF. The refugee crisis after the Taliban came to power will continue to be fueled and will primarily affect neighboring countries, Turkey and Europe.