FX.co ★ World Bank freezes financial aid to Afghanistan

After global lending institutions announced freezing any financial aid to Afghanistan, the World Bank quickly followed suit. Unwilling to back the Taliban-led government, the World Bank stated that it would terminate funding any projects in the country following the Taliban takeover.

“We have paused disbursements in our operations in Afghanistan and we are closely monitoring and assessing the situation in line with our internal policies and procedures,” spokesperson Marcela Sanchez-Bender said. “We are deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and the impact on the country’s development prospects,” she added.

Before terrorists seized power, the World Bank had committed more than $2 billion to fund nearly 30 projects. Most of them were meant for the agriculture and payment systems in Afghanistan. The lending organization found it appropriate to halt cash shipments to the country whose government is not recognized as legitimate by all 189 countries represented in the World Bank.

Earlier, the International Monetary Fund declared that Afghanistan cannot rely on any financial aid from the credit institution. The IMF suspended over $370 million which had to be distributed as an emergency package amid the global support to low-income nations in the time of the economic crisis.