Afghanistan’s economy remains in deep crisis and would likely collapse without regular cash infusions from the United Nations, the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) warned in its latest quarterly report to Congress.
The report said Afghanistan’s central bank, now under Taliban control, has no access to the country’s frozen foreign reserves and faces strict international banking restrictions. As a result, it relies almost entirely on physical U.N. cash shipments to sustain liquidity and basic financial operations.
These transfers have formed the backbone of Afghanistan’s monetary flow, preventing an immediate collapse since the Taliban takeover in August 2021. SIGAR cited previous findings showing that in 2022 and 2023, U.N. shipments averaged about $80 million every 10 to 14 days, totaling roughly $3.6 billion annually.
However, the report noted that the system is changing in 2025, with cash deliveries reduced to once a month, though the size of each shipment has not been disclosed.
SIGAR warned that Afghanistan’s heavy dependence on these injections underscores the fragility of its financial structure: any disruption or halt could rapidly trigger a liquidity crisis, directly affecting millions of Afghans’ livelihoods.
Some Afghan citizens and international analysts argue that, while the U.N. cash program has been crucial to preventing total economic collapse, it has also indirectly bolstered Taliban rule – a criticism that has yet to draw a formal response from the international community.
