KARACHI: Billions of dollars in humanitarian aid and rising trade with Asian neighbours have pushed Afghanistan's currency as the best performer this quarter as it climbed to 9%, Bloomberg reported.
“The ruling Taliban, which seized power two years ago, has also unleashed a series of measures to keep the afghani in a stronghold, including banning the use of dollars and Pakistani rupees in local transactions and tightening restrictions on bringing greenbacks outside the country,” said the report.
The Afghan authorities have also barred online trading and threatened to use punitive measures such as imprisonment for those who violate the rules, it added.
As per data compiled by Bloomberg, the Afghan afghani has risen around 9% this quarter, outpacing the likes of the Colombian peso’s 3% appreciation. “The afghani is up about 14% for the year, putting it third on the global list, behind the currencies of Colombia and Sri Lanka,” the report added.
The Afghan afghani's climb comes in stark contrast to its neighbour Pakistan, where the rupee has lost nearly 22% of its value in the ongoing calendar year alone — despite the recent 6% gain this month.
“The hard currency controls are working, but the economic, social and political instability will render this rise in the currency as a short-term phenomenon,” Kamran Bokhari, an expert in Middle Eastern, Central and South Asian affairs at the Washington-based New Lines Institute for Strategy & Policy, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
