Amid the humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), said that this year the annual per capita income of Afghans is expected to drop sharply.

SIGAR in a report said Afghan per capita income is estimated to have risen from $650 in 2012 to $500 in 2020, and is expected to drop to $350 by 2022.

“In the worst-case scenario modeled by the Asian Development Bank, unemployment could rise by more than 40% in the near term and household consumption could contract by 44%,” the report said.

The report, citing estimates from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the IMF, says the Afghan economy suffered a severe contraction in 2021, down to a drop of 20-30% in GDP. UNDP modeling estimated that Afghanistan’s nominal GDP could rise from $20 billion in 2020 to $16 billion in the months following the August 2021 political changes. contractions of between 3% and 5% if urgent corrective measures were not taken, especially with regard to the employment of women,” the report said.

“When the Islamic emirate came to power, the products of all national industries increased. We prioritized mining and agricultural projects, and increased transit with Central Asia. The system is not broken but it has been sanitized,” said Shafi Azam, head of the economic department at the foreign ministry.

With the collapse of the former government in mid-August last year, followed by the freezing of Afghan assets and the halting of development assistance, Afghanistan faces serious humanitarian and economic challenges. .

Abdurrazaq, a former government employee who lost his job after the political change, said he faced serious economic problems.

“My economic status has gone down considerably compared to the days of the republic. We were working for this soil then, and we are working now, but my economic situation has deteriorated,” he said.

Currently, all development aid has ceased and only humanitarian aid is arriving in the country.