Almost 85% of the population of Afghanistan lives below the poverty line, follows from the report "Social and Economic Prospects of Afghanistan for 2023", published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Interfax reports.
“Immediately after the Taliban came to power, the Afghan economy, which had been falling into poverty for the past decade, collapsed. With a population of about 40 million and a GDP of $14.3 billion in 2021, Afghanistan is among the countries with the lowest per capita income in the world, and about 85% of the population is estimated to live below the poverty line. .
According to the authors of the report, starting from August 2021, Afghanistan's GDP has been declining, and the country is supported only by humanitarian aid from other countries. The authors of the report believe that a 30% reduction in aid will lead to Afghanistan becoming the poorest country, in a worse position than Syria, Sudan and other countries, and its GDP will return to negative growth.
“Afghanistan needs to achieve growth of at least 3% to make an impact on poverty. With the cut in aid in 2023, this figure will turn completely negative and will be very low in 2024. At the same time, only 5% of the humanitarian assistance plan was funded by the end of April this year,” Surayo Buzurukova, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in Afghanistan, said in an interview with the UN News Service.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
April 19, 2023