With the completion of the fourth review under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Christoph Duenwald met with Afghan authorities in Tashkent to put forward some pointers regarding the Afghan economy.
In a statement issued by Mr Duenwald, “SDR 4.5 million (about US$ 6.1 million) will be made available to Afghanistan, bringing total disbursements to SDR 22.5 million.”
However, Afghanistan GDP growth rate for 2018 has been estimated at 2.3% which is lower than the 2017 rate. The reasons ascribed to this decline were the perpetual drought and political uncertainty-led insecurity in the country.
Fortunately, growth is expected to pick up in 2019. Some other indicators were mentioned in the statement, for instance, “inflation is expected to average 3% in 2018. Donor grants continue to finance large budget and trade deficits allowing treasury cash balances and international reserves to remain at comfortable levels.”
The IMF statement concluded that IMF remains to be a key partner of Afghanistan when it comes to reforming the economy and for technical training.
