A bakery in Kabul: The Taliban has decreed that bread prices are not allowed to go up.
Foto: Juan Carlos / DER SPIEGEL
Afghanistan Teetering on the Brink of Economic Collapse
Christoph, Der Spiegel, Oct. 25, 2021
(https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/tall-task-for-the-taliban-afghanistan-teetering-on-the-brink-of-economic-collapse-a-c95faf1d-7f01-4780-911f-3879d914a6a9)

The streets of Kabul are lined with used washing machines, cabinets and pots that have been put up for sale.
Foto: Juan Carlos / DER SPIEGEL

The Sarai Shahzada market in central Kabul has become the largest site for currency exchange in the country.
Foto: Juan Carlos / DER SPIEGEL

People waiting in front of a bank in Kabul: “You first have to release our money!”
Foto: Juan Carlos / DER SPIEGEL

Vendors on the streets of Kabul have multiplied, trying to sell furniture, gas stoves and whatever might bring in a bit of money.
Foto: Juan Carlos / DER SPIEGEL
DER SPIEGEL spent a week trying to arrange an interview – via the Information Ministry – with someone from the emirate who has responsibility for economic or financial affairs. The only staff member there who would reliably answer the phone merely provided landline numbers that were never answered. The head of all state-owned companies initially agreed to an interview, but then changed his mind. At the Economics Ministry, various attempts led all the way to the top, but then it turned out that the minister had no time and had not yet appointed a deputy. Nobody, it was said, was authorized to speak to the press.
Finally, it was possible to track down a Finance Ministry spokesman. Ahmad Wali Haqmal says that the criticism of the Taliban is unfair. “Before we can pay salaries, we have to first filter out all the fake employees that were on the payrolls, especially at the police. We will pay! We are already taking in 300 to 400 million afghani,” 3 to 4 million euros, “in taxes and customs every day!” The world, he says, needs to be more patient. “We will make it easier for foreign investment and get rid of red tape!” He says he can’t yet say when the banks will be allowed to reopen, but issued a plea: “You first have to release our money!”
Suspension of Payments
His appeal is one that applies to Germany as well. Outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel participated in a G-20 teleconference on October 12 in which she supported the provision of assistance to Afghanistan beyond merely emergency aid. The goal, she said, cannot be that of standing by as “40 million people fall into chaos because they have no electricity or a financial system.” In Berlin, though, the government apparatus – specifically, in this case, the Development Ministry – is doing exactly that, and is apparently preventing Germany’s international aid agency, the GIZ, from paying its bills in Afghanistan, even for services rendered prior to the August 15 Taliban takeover. The same is true of the KfW, Germany’s state-owned investment and development bank.
Executives from an erstwhile highly respected consultancy for energy issues in Kabul were astonished when they inquired with GIZ in September about a June invoice that had not yet been paid. “Because of the current ‘Stop’ order from the German government,” read the emailed explanation, no payments are currently being made. The project, an energy needs assessment for 43 districts in three provinces, should be suspended, the email said. “How do they imagine that happening?” wonders the chief executive, who doesn’t want to mention his company by name. “How am I supposed to pay my workers and the rent when the Germans aren’t even willing to pay for the work we did under the last government?”

A view of the Kabul city-center
Foto: Juan Carlos / DER SPIEGEL