Highlights
• Political instability and demand pressure for foreign currencies led to a significant increase in the exchange rate.
In the past 3 weeks, the Afghani fell by 8.6% and hit a new record low; the exchange rate spiked from 79.8 in the beginning of August to almost 100 last week, then dropping back down to 87 this week.
• As most of the basic foods are imported, any drop in the value of the Afghani led to an increase in food prices.
Accordingly, the price of wheat, wheat flour, rice, pulses, salt and sugar considerably increased in recent weeks.
• Despite the large increase in the exchange rate, the price of diesel only slightly climbed because of the fall in global prices and decreased demand for diesel in Afghanistan due to the political situation.
• Work opportunities drastically declined by 10.5% since the beginning of August and dropped to 2.1 days per week. This number is the lowest value for work availability since Feb 2021.
• Both casual labour/wheat and pastoralist ToT deteriorated since the beginning of the month of August by 4.4% and 3.8% respectively .