71 economists co -branded Bai Deng: Repay the money!

This newspaper special reporter Daqiao

Agence France -Presse reported on the 11th that 71 economists in the United States and other countries jointly believed that US President Biden and Treasury Minister Yellen urged the United States to transfer US $ 7 billion assets to Afghanistan as soon as possible. Sign signed by the joint letter include the Nobel Prize winner, the famous American economist Stiglitz, and the Valfakus who once served as the Greek Finance Minister.

The joint letter states that the United States cannot prove the legitimacy of frozen Afghan central bank reserves. At the same time, economists are deeply concerned about the complex economic and humanitarian disasters in Afghanistan, "especially the role of the US policy in promoting these disasters." Economists emphasized that without foreign exchange reserves, the central bank of Afghanistan could not fulfill its normal basic functions. "It is foreseeable that Afghanistan's economy will collapse."

After the U.S. rushed to withdraw troops from Afghanistan last year, Afghanistan Taliban quickly took over the regime, and the United States immediately decided to freeze the more than $ 7 billion of the Central Bank of Afghanistan. In addition, countries such as Britain, Germany, and the UAE have refused to return $ 2 billion to the Central Bank of Afghanistan.

Agence France -Presse said that the freezing operation initiated by the United States worsened Afghanistan's economy. Economists said that the economic activities of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal have declined significantly, and the former aid countries have also greatly reduced their support for Afghanistan, causing Afghanistan's economy to be chaotic. The joint letter mentioned that 70%of the current Afghan families cannot meet the basic living needs. "About 22.8 million people (accounted for more than half of Afghanistan) are facing a serious food crisis, and 3 million children bear the risk of malnutrition."

Economists insist that the central bank assets frozen by the United States and Britain and other countries are critical to the country's economic operation, especially in terms of stable currency and purchasing food and oil. At the same time, they criticized the United States that it was not enough to return half of the amount of trust funds that have established international supervision.

The Biden government ordered in February this year to divide the assets of the frozen Central Bank of Afghanistan into two, half of which was used to compensate the victims of the 2001 "September 11" terrorist attack; the other half was transferred to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, USA A account is used to "help" the people of Afghanistan, but refused to hand over it to the Taliban regime.

The US "Foreign Policy" magazine reported on July 21 that officials of the US State Department and the Ministry of Finance held talks with representatives of Taliban in the first half of this year to discuss how to use US $ 7 billion in the United States frozen. An official of the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Foreign Policy that during the entire negotiation process, the Afghan government had been openly audited by the use of funds. The official said it continued to seize billions of dollars in the "assets of theft of the people of Afghanistan."

The crisis that returned frozen funds to alleviate Afghanistan's economy is tantamount to "sending charcoal in the snow". Bloomberg reported on August 5 that Afghanistan's current poverty rate exceeded 50%. The United Nations estimates that there are 2.6 million Afghan refugees in the world, and the other 5.5 million people have dispacted due to domestic conflicts. The International Monetary Fund expects that the country's economy will shrink by 30%.

At the same time, "Foreign Policy" analyzed that the return of foreign exchange reserves that returned to Afghanistan will help alleviate the inflation of the country, inject liquidity into the banking system, start some economic activities, and stabilize the exchange rate of Afghanistan Afghanistan.

Frozen foreign assets is a means of sanctions by the United States and its allies. The British "Financial Times" reported on August 10 that since the outbreak of Russia and Ukraine's conflict on February 24, Western countries have frozen the central bank of Russia's central bank about $ 300 billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves, which has led to the current control of the Russian central bank. And RMB. To this end, Russia has taken measures to restrict the flow of corresponding funds to unfriendly countries and regions. ▲

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