Kabul
\nAfghanistan\u2019s finance ministry under the new Taliban government has prepared a draft national budget that, for the first time in two decades, is funded without foreign aid, a spokesman said.
\nIt comes as the country is mired in economic crisis and faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe the United Nations has called an \u201cavalanche of hunger\u201d.
\nFinance ministry spokesman Ahmad Wali Haqmal did not disclose the size of the draft budget \u2014 which runs until December 2022 \u2014 but told AFP it would go to the cabinet for approval before being published.
\n\u201cWe are trying to finance it from our domestic revenues \u2014 and we believe we can,\u201d he earlier told state television in an interview shared on Twitter.
\nGlobal donors suspended financial aid when the Taliban seized power in August and Western powers also froze access to billions of dollars in assets held abroad.
\nThe 2021 budget, put together by the previous administration under IMF guidance, projected a deficit despite 219 billion Afghanis in aid and grants and 217 billion from domestic revenue.
\nAt that time the exchange rate was around 80 Afghanis to the dollar, but the local currency has been hammered since the Taliban\u2019s return, particularly in the past week, slumping to 130 on Monday before recovering Friday to around 100.
\nHaqmal accepted that public servants are still owed several months of wages, saying \u201cwe are trying our best\u201d to make good on overdue pay by year-end.
\nHe warned, however, a new pay scale had also been prepared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kabul Afghanistan\u2019s finance ministry under the new Taliban government has prepared a draft national budget that, for the first time in two decades, is funded without foreign aid, a spokesman said. It comes as the country is mired in economic crisis and faces a looming humanitarian catastrophe the United Nations has called an \u201cavalanche of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75,880,1795,192],"class_list":{"0":"post-233540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-afghanistan","9":"tag-budget","10":"tag-foreign-aid","11":"tag-taliban"},"yoast_head":"\n