KABUL (SW) – According to the World Bank report, in the last six years, Afghanistan’s GDP has decreased by more than six billion US dollars and the need for humanitarian aid from the international community has increased.
According to World Bank assessments, Afghanistan’s economic growth in the past decade has always fluctuated, so that the value of the gross domestic product reached 20 billion dollars in 2014, but in 2021, this figure decreased to 15 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, Abdul Rahman Habib, the spokesman of the Ministry of Economy, told Salam Watandar that Afghanistan’s economic growth in the last two decades was based on the aid of the international community, which decreased after the Islamic Emirate came to power and the aid was cut off.
“The growth of the country’s gross production has been accompanied with fluctuations during the last two decades, and the growth of Afghanistan’s production in two decades has been five percent. Official statistics of GDP growth are not yet available, but according to the current situation, economic growth is negative. According to the World Bank report, more than one billion and 600 million dollars of humanitarian aid has been provided to Afghanistan”.
On the other hand, according to economic experts, the dependence of Afghanistan’s economy on international aid has made it vulnerable.
Bahman Yousefi, a researcher of international economics, said: “It can be said that during the past 20 years, the Afghan economy has been a rentier economy, and one of the characteristics of the rentier economy is that as long as the aid continues, the economic cycle continues, but if aid is cut off, it will have a negative impact on the economic cycle. Currently, Afghanistan’s GDP is 14.49 billion dollars, which shows a decrease of 30%”.
Bhair Zeland, an expert on economic issues, said: “We were able to move slowly towards improvement thanks to the help of the West. GDP reached 20 billion dollars by 2020. With the help of eight billion US dollars in the military sector, 40% would be added to our GDP. With the collapse of the republic on August 15, 2021, aid of eight billion dollars to the system and other aid was cut off, and it is natural that these will affect the GDP”.
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