IMF’s loan to cover 46 pct Afghan national budget deficit

Kathmandu : The International Monetary Fund (IMF) would give a payable loan of 225 million U.S. dollars to Afghanistan which is expected to cover 46 percent deficit in the national budget for the Afghan year 1400, a local online news agency reported Thursday.

“In the 1400 fiscal year, around 17.4 billion afghanis (over 225 million U.S. dollars) is anticipated as a loan from the IMF and the national debt has amounted to 1.5 billion U.S. dollars and has been covered by international organizations and many countries,” the Afghan online business news portal, Wadsam, reported.

The 1400 fiscal year on the Persian calendar began on Dec. 21, 2020

The report noted that the loan would have a repayment policy. The Afghan fiscal year’s total budget is over 6 billion U.S. dollars, which consists of over 4 billion U.S. dollars for the regular budget, and over 2 billion U.S. dollars in the development budget, according to the report.

The latest payable loan comes as poverty and rising unemployment have spread across the country as the prolonged conflicts and fighting in the country as well as drought added to the miseries of the war-weary Afghans.

About 54.5 percent of Afghans were living under the poverty line in 2019, according to Afghan officials. However, the number soared to 72 percent last year, according to the World Bank.