News in Brief

Afghanistan Burns Banknotes

In recent weeks, Da Afghanistan Bank (the country’s central bank) has incinerated c. 2 billion worn-out Afghani banknotes. In 2023, it collected and incinerated approximately 5.2 billion banknotes.

DAB used the latest occasion to urge the public to take better care of their banknotes, citing excessive use and lack of attention to the maintenance of the notes as the reason for their deterioration.

The condition of the country’s banknotes is, however, more to do with there being too few of them staying far too long in circulation, rather than how the public handle them.

After the 2021 re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the nation’s foreign assets were frozen and it wasn’t until 2022 that funds was released to enable payment for new banknotes to be printed, with the contract going to Polish printer PWPW.

The hiatus meant, however, a significant deterioration in the existing notes before replenishments arrived, compounded by Afghanistan being locked out of the international payments system so is dependent on its worn-out banknotes for all payments.