KABUL (SW) – Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Secretary General’s Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, has said that in the past 18 months, at least 700,000 jobs have been lost and the GDP in Afghanistan has also decreased by 35%.
Commenting on this, Abdul Rahman Habib, the spokesman of the Ministry of Economy, said these figures do not present a complete picture of the situation. “The countries that have been here [Afghanistan] for twenty years have had various projects, and those who were involved in these projects have been affected the most by the closure and non-implementation of these projects. But this is not an official statistic”, he said, adding that the jobs lost were temporarily ones linked with projects funded by foreign countries.
Bahman Yousefi, a university professor and researcher of economic issues, agrees that several factors play a role in the unemployment challenge in Afghanistan.
“Many factors are involved in the increase of unemployment in Afghanistan, especially after the transformation of 2021. The important issue is the cut off of foreign income. After the establishment of the Islamic Emirate, foreign aid was cut off and a number of international offices and projects in Afghanistan were closed. Almost most of the former government employees were dismissed. The lack of interaction with the world has led to drop in investment and capital flight”.
Despite all this, Taj Mohamed Tesseh, an expert on economic issues, said that unemployment has increased due to the reduction of the trade balance and the decrease in GDP. “These figures by the UN are just estimates, I do not agree with it”.
The deputy head of UNAMA has also said that in the last 18 months, people’s ability to pay for food has decreased by 30%.
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