Overview: Afghanistan is an extremely poor, landlocked country, highly dependent on farming (wheat especially) and livestock raising (sheep and goats). Economic considerations have played second fiddle to political and military upheavals during more than 14 years of war, including the nearly 10-year Soviet military occupation (which ended 15 February 1989). Over the past decade, one-third of the population fled the country, with Pakistan sheltering more than 3 million refugees and Iran about 3 million. About 1.4 million Afghan refugees remain in Pakistan and about 2 million in Iran. Another 1 million probably moved into and around urban areas within Afghanistan. Although reliable data are unavailable, gross domestic product is lower than 12 years ago because of the loss of labor and capital and the disruption of trade and transport.

National product: GDP $NA

National product real growth rate: NA%

National product per capita: $NA

Inflation rate (consumer prices): NA%

Unemployment rate: NA%

Budget:
revenues: $NA
expenditures: $NA, including capital expenditures of $NA

Exports: $243 million (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities: fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semi-precious gems
partners: FSU countries, Pakistan, Iran, Germany, India, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czechoslovakia

Imports: $737 million (c.i.f., 1991)
commodities: food and petroleum products; most consumer goods
partners: FSU countries, Pakistan, Iran, Japan, Singapore, India, South Korea, Germany

External debt: $2.3 billion (March 1991 est.)

Industrial production: growth rate 2.3% (FY91 est.); accounts for about 25% of GDP

Electricity:
capacity: 480,000 kW
production: 1 billion kWh
consumption per capita: 60 kWh (1992)

Industries: small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, and cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, oil, coal, copper

Agriculture: largely subsistence farming and nomadic animal husbandry; cash products - wheat, fruits, nuts, karakul pelts, wool, mutton

Illicit drugs: an illicit cultivator of opium poppy and cannabis for the international drug trade; world's second-largest opium producer after Burma (680 metric tons in 1993) and a major source of hashish

Economic aid:
recipient: $450 million US assistance provided 1985-1993; USAID will stop all programs by mid-1994; the UN provides assistance in the form of food aid, immunization, land mine removal, and a wide range of aid to refugees and displaced persons

Currency: 1 afghani (AF) = 100 puls
Exchange rates: afghanis (Af) per US$1 - 1,900 (January 1994), 1,019 (March 1993), 850 (1991), 700 (1989-90), 220 (1988-89); note - these rates reflect the free market exchange rates rather than the official exchange rates

Fiscal year: 21 March - 20 March

NOTE: The information regarding Afghanistan on this page is re-published from the 1995 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Afghanistan Economy 1995 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Afghanistan Economy 1995 should be addressed to the CIA.