Afghan Central Bank Governor: "Foreign Reserves of 11 Trillion Won... Taliban Unlikely to Access"

Azmal Ahmadi, Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Twitter

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunbyeol Kim] The Central Bank of Afghanistan stated on the 18th (local time) that there is no possibility of its funds falling into the hands of the Taliban.

Azmal Ahmadi, Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, tweeted on the 18th, "All (Central Bank of Afghanistan) assets are held by the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed), the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the World Bank (WB), and others," adding, "There is absolutely no threat to Afghanistan's foreign exchange reserves."

He said, "There is a program monitoring (Central Bank of Afghanistan) assets together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the U.S. Treasury Department," emphasizing, "No funds have been secretly withdrawn from any central bank account."

Governor Ahmadi further explained, "It is hard to imagine a situation where the U.S. Treasury Department or its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) would allow the Taliban to access (Central Bank of Afghanistan) funds," adding, "The Central Bank of Afghanistan's assets will remain frozen, and the Taliban, who are subject to international sanctions, will not be able to access them." He estimated that the Taliban might only be able to access 0.1 to 0.2% of the foreign exchange held by the Afghan government.

The assets held by the Central Bank of Afghanistan totaled $9 billion (approximately 10.5 trillion KRW) as of last week. According to Governor Ahmadi, $7 billion in cash, gold, U.S. Treasury bonds, and other securities are held at the U.S. Fed, with $700 million and $1.3 billion held in the BIS and other international accounts, respectively.

Governor Ahmadi said he posted the tweet after hearing reports that the Taliban had inquired with central bank staff about the whereabouts of the assets.

He pointed out, "Currently, the central bank is not supplying dollars to commercial banks, so commercial banks are also unable to provide dollars to their customers," adding, "This is because all international accounts holding dollars have been frozen, and the Taliban should understand that this is not a decision made by the central bank (to withhold dollar supply)."

Governor Ahmadi predicted that with the freezing of the Central Bank of Afghanistan's assets, the Taliban will inevitably have to control capital and impose restrictions on dollar holdings going forward. He also forecasted that if the Taliban take expected measures, the Afghan currency will depreciate, inflation will occur, food prices will rise, and the impoverished population will be adversely affected.

Governor Ahmadi asserted, "The Taliban have militarily won and are now governing Afghanistan, but governance will not be easy." According to Bloomberg and other sources, the United States has frozen all assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan to prevent Taliban access.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.