UN: Afghanistan’s economy is collapsing `before our eyes’

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief is warning that Afghanistan’s economic collapse “is happening before our eyes” and urged the international community to take action to stop the freefall before it leads to more deaths. Martin Griffiths said in an AP interview that donor nations need to agree that in addition to emergency humanitarian aid they need to support basic services for the Afghan people including education, hospitals, electricity and paying civil servants. And he said they must inject liquidity into the economy which has seen the banking system almost shut down. Griffiths said: “We’re seeing the economic collapse being exponential.”