Afghan afghani

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This article refers to the currency. For other uses, see Afghani.

The afghani is the official currency used in Afghanistan.

It is divided into 100 pul.

This currency is not pegged to another currency.

1 History
- 1.1 First Afghani, 1925-2003
- 1.2 Second Afghani, 2003-
2 Circulating Currency
3 External links

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History

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First Afghani, 1925-2003

The first afghani was introduced in 1925. It replaced the Afghan rupee at a rate of 1 afghani = 1.1 rupees. [1] It had the ISO 4217 code AFA.

Prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, warlords, political parties, foreign powers and forgers each made their own afghanis, with no regard to standardization or honoring serial numbers. For example, after the Northern Alliance lost power in 1996, it had banknotes produced in Russia which were sold on the markets of Kabul at half their value. In April, 2000, the afghani traded at 6,400 AFA per USD. By 2002, the afghani was valued at 43,000 AFA per USD.

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Second Afghani, 2003-

On January 2, 2003, a three-month transition period ended, swapping old afghani banknotes for a new currency. The new afghani received a new ISO 4217 code of AFN and was worth 1000 old afghanis. Thus, the new afghani was valued at 43 AFN per USD.

Prior to the reissue there were more than 15 trillion Afghanis in circulation after unrestrained printing under Taliban rule and during wars and occupation.

After depreciating during the last quarter of 2003/04, the Afghani has been appreciating steadily, gaining 8 percent against the U.S. dollar between end-March 2004 and end-July 2004. This appreciation, at a time of increasing inflation, appears to reflect a greater willingness by the population to use the Afghani as a medium of exchange and as a store of value. This trend appears to be attributable to the relative stability of the exchange rate since the introduction of the new currency, administrative measures aimed at promoting its use, such as the requirement that shopkeepers must price goods in Afghanis. Donors are increasingly making payments in Afghani instead of U.S. dollars and this appears to be widely accepted.

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Circulating Currency

New denominations come in 1, 2 and 5 Afghani coins and banknotes, and the other issue of 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000, and 10000 Afghani all paper issue.

On October 1, Afghan Central Bank governor Anwar Ul-Haq Ahadi announced that Afghans should use their own afghani currency in daily transactions rather than United States dollars or Pakistani rupees. This was in preparation for October 8 when all prices in the Afghan marketplace were to be specified in afghanis.

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