Since the takeover, the insurgents have developed a rapid offensive throughout Afghanistan. Last Sunday, the mainstream media reported that the militant group controlled all border crossings. President Ashraf Ghani had managed to flee the country, while Vice President Amrullah Saleh, as interim head of state, tried desperately to organize resistance to the militants in the northern regions of the capital.
What kind of economy did the Taliban end up with? The Afghan economy is estimated to be worth less than $20 billion. According to the World Bank, from 2015 to 2020, the average annual growth of Afghanistan's economy has plunged. Thus, from 2003 to 2012, the economic growth averaged about 9.4%, which was largely contributed by international trade. At the end of last year, the Gross Domestic Product of Afghanistan and other states decreased significantly by as much as 5% due to the coronavirus crisis.
The population of Afghanistan is 40 million people. Last year, the size of its economy in dollar terms and at present prices was $19.8 billion. We give an example to have a better understanding of this situation: Bosnia and Herzegovina has approximately the same size of economy, but it is designed for 3.3 million people; Iceland has a slightly larger economy ($ 21.7 billion) and is designed for less than 500 thousand people. Afghanistan's GDP is $ 509 per capita.
The bulk of GDP is provided by the service sector (56%), followed by agriculture (27%). The private sector is at a low level. The majority of the population is employed in the agricultural sector.
This is due to a significant reduction in the foreign military contingent. The reduction in grants has narrowed the range of services available in the country and dramatically worsened the situation on the labor market.
According to data from the Central Bank, Afghanistan's foreign debt totaled approximately $6.5 billion by the middle of last year.
At the end of April 2021, Afghanistan's international reserves were about $9.4 billion. Now they are likely to be used by the Taliban. However, all that is outside the country's borders is under sanctions.
According to the World Bank data, in 2019 Afghanistan had a total export of $870. But the total value of imports is many times greater, it is about $8.6 billion. Afghanistan buys peat, oil products and crude plants from such countries as India, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.
Since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, the world has been rocked by alarming violence against Afghan women who previously had the right to work and study. Today, according to Al Jazeera, in some areas the Taliban have already ordered female bank employees to leave their jobs and return home.
And how did people in Afghanistan feel when NATO and American troops were there?
According to the official version, Washington was fighting international terrorism and suppressing drug trafficking. However, there is another opinion. Patrushev insists that over the past 20 years Washington has created a drug laboratory of world scale in Afghanistan, and the production of opiates has increased more than 40 times. There has been no military training for the Afghan army, police or security forces, so the morally and psychologically decomposed military surrendered without a fight. The US government spent a great sum of money on the upkeep of its troops. According to Patrushev,the ordinary Afghan population was left in abject poverty.
The following figures are below: the country's poverty rate increased from 60% in 2013 to 85% in 2020.If the survey data is to be believed, maternal mortality has declined from 1,450 deaths per 100,000 births in 2000 and to 638 in 2018.
Nevertheless, Gerhard Schroeder, former German chancellor and current chairman of Rosneft, is convinced that the last four US presidents are to blame for what is happening in Afghanistan today. He said the US government should bear responsibility for dramatic events in this country. Schroeder thinks that the US has chosen the wrong strategy in Afghanistan. The military operations in the country were launched with the help of the US government under false pretext. This resulted in destabilization of the situation in the Middle East.
Currently, it has been made public that the Taliban have invited the world powers to participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and the development of its natural resources. This was announced by the representative of the Qatari political office of the movement, Mohammad Sohail Shaheen.