Officials from the Central Bank of Afghanistan (CBA) on Monday said that the value of the Afghani currency continues to drop against the US dollar in the face of ongoing political tension in the country over the past few weeks. 
 
Besides the rise in dollar value against the Afghani, the price of some goods has also risen on local markets. 
 
According to the CBA chairman, this year the bank successfully injected over $500 million USD as an additional amount to the treasury and the money raised gross foreign exchange reserves to over $8 billion.
 
CBA officials have said that budget spending significantly increased in the last month of last year’s fiscal year and the issue paved the way for a sudden flow of Afghani currency onto the local markets, which they said also affected the Afghani value.
 
According to them weaker currencies in neighboring countries and political tension has also attributed to its decrease. 
 
“The tensions we witnessed in the country over the past two months is one of the key reasons behind the price hikes and the dropping of the Afghani currency against the dollar; these issues need to be resolved, because it has major implications,” said Khalil Sediq, Chairman of the CBA. 
 
Currently it is 70 Afghani’s to the dollar and 84 Afghani’s to one Euro.  
 
CBA injected over $200 million this month into the local market to ensure the stability of the Afghan currency, said CBA chairman Sediqi. 
 
But, forex exchangers at Kabul’s main financial market (Sarai Shahzada Market) say that the CBA has injected fewer dollars than in the past.
 
They said that over the past few days people are changing their dollars for Pakistani rupees and Iranian Riyals. 
 
“Currently, the Pakistani rupee is used in at least eleven provinces, so when the Pakistani rupee loses its value against the dollar, people change rupees for dollars, this issue leads to the shortage of dollars,” said Mohammad Hashim Rozayee, spokesman for the forex dealers in Kabul.
 
Meanwhile a number of economic commentators have said that with the decrease in value of the Afghani against the dollar, government must stop people from smuggling dollars to neighboring countries. 
 
“Government needs to come up with a comprehensive policy to control forex bazars, because the increase of dollars on the market poses serious harm to those with a low income,” said Haseeb Mauhid, economic analyst. 

CBA states that this year government has made major gains in the financial and banking systems.
 
The CBA said currently Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves crossed the $8.1 billion USD mark.
 
Based on CBA statistics, inflation has also dropped by four percent this year. 
 
The CBA chairman also said that currently the amount of money circulating on the local market is estimated to be over 200 billion Afghanis.