Afghanistan Listeni/fnstn/ (Pashto/Dari: , Afnistn), officially

the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia
and Central Asia.[7][3] It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the
42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and
east; Iran in the west; Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north; and China
in the far northeast. Its territory covers 652,000 km2 (252,000 sq mi), making it the 41st
largest country in the world.

Afghanistan - Balance of Payments

Capital & financial account - Foreign direct investment, net
inflows (BoP, current US$)

59,602,266
(BoP, current US$)
in 2013
Foreign direct investment are the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management
interest (10 percent or more of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other than
that of the investor. It is the sum of equity capital, reinvestment of earnings, other long-term
capital, and short-term capital as shown in the balance of payments. This series shows net
inflows of investment from the reporting economy to the rest of the world. Data are in current
U.S. doll

Date Value Change, %

2013 59,602,266 -36.60 %
2012 94,013,759 3.05 %
2011 91,227,567 20.59 %
2010 75,649,209 -64.60 %
2009 213,670,260 144.82 %
2008 87,276,201 -53.75 %
2007 188,690,000 -20.72 %
2006 238,000,000 -12.18 %
2005 271,000,000 45.00 %
2004 186,900,000 223.36 %
2003 57,800,000 15.60 %
2002 50,000,000
Afghanistan's chief exports are natural gas and dried fruit. Other exports
include carpets, fresh fruit, wool, and cotton. Afghanistan imports food, motor
vehicles, petroleum products, and textiles. Most of the foreign trade of Afghanistan
is controlled by the government or by government-controlled monopolies. The USSR

was Afghanistan's chief trading partner even before the 1979 Soviet invasion, and
this relationship intensified in the 1980s. The leading purchasers of Afghan
products, in addition to the USSR and the former Soviet republics, have been
Pakistan, Great Britain, Germany, and India. In 1991 exports amounted to about
$188.2 million, while imports cost $616.4 million

Afghanistan Balance of Trade

2003-2015 | Data | Chart | Calendar

Afghanistan recorded a trade deficit of 8209 USD Million in 2014.

Balance of Trade in Afghanistan averaged -3845.73 USD Million from
2003 until 2014, reaching an all time high of -1660.92 USD Million in
2005 and a record low of -8654 USD Million in 2013. Balance of Trade in
Afghanistan is reported by the Central Statistics Organization of
Afghanistan.

Actual

Previous

Highest

Lowest

Dates

Unit

Frequency

-8209.00

-8654.00

-1660.92

-8654.00

2003 - 2014

USD
Million

Yearly

Since 2006, Afghanistans trade deficit has been widening as imports have surged due to the
reconstruction effort. Afghanistan main exports are: carpets and rugs; dried fruits and medical
plans. Main imports are: petroleum; machinery and equipment and food items. Afghanistans
main trading partners are: Pakistan (48 percent of total exports and 14 percent of imports) and
Russia (9 percent of exports and 13 percent of imports). Others include: Iran, China, India, Japan
and Turkey. This page provides - Afghanistan Balance of Trade - actual values, historical data,
forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news. Content for - Afghanistan Balance of
Trade
was
last
refreshed
on
Wednesday,
October
7,
2015.

Afghanistan Trade

Last

Previous

Highest

Lowest

Unit

Balance of Trade

-8209.00

-8654.00

-1660.92

-8654.00

USD Million

Exports

514.97

414.51

544.56

69.10

USD Million

Imports

8724.00

9069.00

9069.00

1966.07

USD Million

Current Account

-9239.00

-8490.00

-1371.50

-9239.00

USD Million

Current Account to GDP

-43.00

-44.60

-40.70

-75.20

percent

Gold Reserves

21.87

21.87

21.87

21.87

Tonnes

Balance of Trade

Reference

Previous

Highest

Lowest

Unit

Australia

-3095.00

Aug/15

-2460.00

2229.00

-3912.00

AUD Million

Brazil

2944.00

Sep/15

2689.00

5659.37

-4058.14

USD Million

Canada

-2534.00

Aug/15

-817.00

8524.80

-3853.00

CAD Million

China

602.36

Aug/15

430.25

606.19

-319.71

USD Hundred
Million

Euro Area

31400.00

Jul/15

26368.70

31400.00 -16748.10

EUR Million

France

-2975.00

Aug/15

-3163.00

2674.00

EUR Million

Germany

24996.00

Jul/15

24200.00

24996.00 -535.91

India

-12480.00

Indonesia

430.00

Aug/15

1390.00

4641.92

-2329.13

USD Million

Italy

8026.21

Jul/15

2808.95

8026.21

-6389.30

EUR Million

Japan

-569.66

Aug/15

-69.00

1608.67

-2795.04

JPY Billion

Aug/15 -12812.46 258.90

-7086.00

EUR Million

-20210.90 USD Million

Balance of Trade

Reference

Previous

Highest

Lowest

Unit

Mexico

-2800.00

Aug/15

-2267.00

1710.25

-3292.30

USD Million

Netherlands

4838.00

Jul/15

5118.00

6211.40

-907.60

EUR Million

Russia

8500.00

Aug/15

10680.00

20356.00 -185.00

USD Million

South Korea

8900.00

Sep/15

4270.00

9980.00

USD Million

Spain

-1396119.00

Jul/15

-2046007.00 634935.00 -9834766.00 EUR

Thousand

Switzerland

2869.10

Aug/15

3578.70

3895.50

-1478.68

CHF million

Turkey

-4886.34

Aug/15

-7060.24

24.51

-10453.06

USD Million

United Kingdom -3371.00

Jul/15

-1601.00

2946.00

-5397.00

GBP Million

United States

Aug/15

-41863.00

1946.00

-67823.00

USD Million

-48330.00

-4043.45

September 2014

Afghanistan
BASIC INDICATORS
Population (thousands, 2013)
GDP (million current US$, 2013)
GDP (million current PPP US$, 2013)
Current account balance (million US$, 2012)
Trade per capita (US$, 2010-2012)
Trade to GDP ratio (2010-2012)

30 552
20 725
60 786
- 7 286
425
68.3

Real GDP (2005=100)

Exports of goods and services (volume, 2005=100)
Imports of goods and services (volume, 2005=100)

Rank in world trade, 2013

Merchandise
excluding intra-EU trade
Commercial services
excluding intra-EU trade

2013
207

2005-2013
9

...
...

...
...

Exports
164
137
86
59

Annual percentage change

2012
14
...
...

Imports
108
83
106
79

2013
4
...
...

TRADE POLICY
WTO accession
Trade Policy Review
GPA accession
Tariffs and duty free imports
Tariff binding coverage (%)
MFN tariffs
Simple average of import duties
All goods
Agricultural goods (AOA)

Observer
-

Final bound

Applied
2013

5.9
7.1

Contribution to WTO budget

Import duties collected (%, 2010-2012)
in total tax revenue
38.9
to total imports
...
Number of notifications to WTO and measures in force
Outstanding notifications in WTO Central Registry
Goods RTAs - services EIAs notified to WTO
Anti-dumping
Countervailing duties

1-0
-

Non-agricultural goods
Non ad-valorem duties (% total tariff lines)
MFN duty free imports (%, 2011)
in agricultural goods (AOA)
in non-agricultural goods
Services sectors with GATS commitments

MERCHANDISE TRADE

Merchandise exports, f.o.b. (million US$)

Merchandise imports, c.i.f. (million US$)

Share in world total exports

Breakdown in economy's total exports
By main commodity group (ITS)
Agricultural products
Fuels and mining products
Manufactures
By main destination
1. Pakistan
2. India
3. Iran
4. China
5. Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of
Unspecified destinations
COMMERCIAL SERVICES TRADE

5.7
0.9
0.0
0.5
-

Safeguards
Number of disputes (complainant - defendant)
Requests for consultation
Original panel / Appellate Body (AB) reports
Compliance panel / AB reports (Article 21.5 DSU)
Arbitration awards (Article 22.6 DSU)

Value
2013
515
8 724

Annual percentage change

2005-2013
4
17

2012
14
39

2013 a
0.00
Share in world total imports
Breakdown in economy's total imports
By main commodity group (ITS)
52.0
Agricultural products
0.3
Fuels and mining products
14.1
Manufactures
By main origin
47.0
1. Pakistan
16.3
2. China
6.2
3. Japan
1.1
4. Iran
0.4
5. European Union (28)
28.7
Unspecified origins

Value

2013
20
-4

2013 a
0.05

13.8
34.4
13.5
14.2
11.5
9.7
8.0
4.7
50.0

Annual percentage change

Commercial services exports (million US$)

Commercial services imports (million US$)

2012
2 998
2 185

Share in world total exports

2012
0.07

Share in world total imports

2012
0.05

11.4
1.9
86.7

Breakdown in economy's total imports

By principal services item
Transportation
Travel
Other commercial services

48.1
3.4
48.5

Breakdown in economy's total exports

By principal services item
Transportation
Travel
Other commercial services

2005-2012
...
...

April 24th 2014

Poor outlook for Pakistan-Afghanistan bilateral trade

2011
11
3

2012
-12
75

Trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan has grown since 2001, although much of it
is informal and is not captured in official statistics. The two governments have tried
to promote closer economic ties, but progress has been limited owing to corruption
and security problems on both sides of the border. Bilateral trade is also
imbalanced, with Pakistan having a large surplus, as Afghanistan's low economic
development limits its ability to export. The deteriorating security situation in
Afghanistan as international troops withdraw is likely to lead to a decline in bilateral
trade in 201415.
Since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001, trade between Afghanistan and
Pakistan has grown strongly, albeit from a low base. According to IMF statistics,
exports from Pakistan to Afghanistan grew from US$142m in 2001 to US$2bn in
2012. Its imports from Afghanistan increased from US$26m to US$177m during the
period. Much of the bilateral trade is not captured in official figures, because often it
is conducted informally to avoid customs duties and fees at the border. In August
2013 an Afghan official assessed that informal bilateral trade totalled an additional
US$2bn above what was officially reported. The State Bank of Pakistan (the central
bank) recorded a 23% fall in exports to Afghanistan in fiscal year 2012/13 (JulyJune)
and much of this decline was attributed to trade moving to informal channels.
Lukewarm government support for growing economic relations
The governments of both Pakistan and Afghanistan have made efforts to promote
bilateral trade. Officials meet regularly through the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint
Economic Commission (JEC), which was established in 2003 to improve bilateral
economic cooperation. The ninth session of the JEC was held in the Afghan capital,
Kabul, in late February 2014 and was chaired by Afghanistan's finance minister,
Omar Zakhilwal, and his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar. Some concrete measures
to promote bilateral trade were mooted at the session, such as the commencement
of construction on an additional road between the Torkham Gate on the countries'
shared border and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. However, several of the commitments
made during the ninth session were similar to those at the eighth session, held in
January 2012, such as cooperation to implement the Central Asia South Asia
Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA 1000) and the TurkmenistanAfghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. This suggests that these meetings
tend to be for form's sake rather than producing anything of substance.
The two sides also signed an updated version of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit
Trade Agreement (APTTA) in 2010, which allows Afghanistan to transit duty-free
goods overland through Pakistan and via Pakistani ports for export and import to
other countries. (The agreement, however, does not permit India to transit goods
through Pakistan for export to Afghanistan, as Pakistan and India continue to impose
restrictions on their bilateral trade owing to security concerns.) The agreement has
been widely touted in local and international press as helping to promote bilateral

trade. However, Afghanistan's overall exports did not rise in value between 2010
and 2012, according to IMF data, and the pact has encouraged widespread
smuggling of goods in Pakistan by traders claiming to be transiting goods into
Afghanistan.
Corruption and security issues are impediments to trade
Security problems on both sides of the border hinder Pakistan-Afghanistan trade.
Traders moving goods through Pakistan and Afghanistan often have to pay
protection money to insurgents to ensure that their goods can move safely, which
increases the cost of trade. According to a Pakistani newspaper, Dawn, traders
moving goods from Karachi to the border crossings at Chaman in Balochistan and
the Torkham Gate in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have to pay
extortion fees ranging from PRs100,000-200,000 (US$9601,900) per container,
often at check points in FATA. The US government has acknowledged that the
private contractors who transport military supplies pay off the Taliban in order to
move them safely through Afghanistan. Merchants in Afghanistan also are
frequently required to pay off insurgents to ensure that their goods are not harmed.
Although traders often provide bribes to customs officers to evade official duties and
levies on their goods when crossing the border, guards on both sides demand bribes
from people moving across the border and subject them to harassment if they
refuse, which is likely to discourage crossborder trade
The Afghan economy is also underdeveloped compared with Pakistan and does not
produce goods that are widely in demand over the border. This is reflected in the
imbalance in bilateral trade: Pakistan's exports to Afghanistan far exceed its imports
from the country. In addition, Pakistan is a far more important trading partner for
Afghanistan than the latter is for Pakistan. In 2012 32% of Afghanistan's total
exports went to Pakistan, while only 8% of Pakistan's total exports went to
Afghanistan. Of Afghanistan's imports, 23.5% came from Pakistan, while less than
1% of the latter's imports originated from Afghanistan. Given that Pakistan's trade
with Afghanistan constitutes a small share of its total trade, Pakistan is likely to
focus its trade-promotion efforts on other more important trading partners.
In addition, high inflows of foreign exchange into Afghanistan owing to the
international military presence and large amount of international aid have cause the
afghani's value to be artificially high against the Pakistan rupee. Although the
afghani has depreciated against the US dollar over the past two years as foreigncurrency inflows have declined, its strength has increased the cost of production in
Afghanistan and hinders the country's ability to export.
Bilateral trade is likely to decline
Trade between the two countries is likely to decline in 201415. The security
situation in Afghanistan will probably worsen as international troops complete their

withdrawal from the country in 2014, making it more difficult to move goods across
the border and increasing the vulnerability of businessmen to extortion.
Afghanistan's economic growth is likely to slow as inflows of foreign aid decline and
the security situation worsens, which will reduce the country's demand for imports
and hamper its ability to produce goods for export. As a result, the outlook for
bilateral trade remains poor.
War and politic infighting g
Twelve years ago, Afghanistan's economy lay in ruins. The country had been
devastated by two decades of war and political infighting and found itself under the
rule of the Taliban, a religious extremist group that had seized power in 1996. But a
terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 would end
up having a tremendous impact on the development of the South Asian nation in
the years that followed.
The toppling of the Taliban regime by a US-led coalition and the formation of a new
Afghan government under President Hamid Karzai led to a significant economic
expansion in the impoverished country. This development, however, has been
fueled in large part by foreign aid.
Foreign aid dependency
Since 2002, foreign countries have been pouring vast sums of money into nationbuilding and establishing democratic institutions in Afghanistan. The United States
alone has spent about 100 billion USD in nonmilitary funds to rebuild the country,
according to US government data.
Other countries, too, have chipped in tens of billions of dollars in assistance. For
instance, total foreign aid to Afghanistan in 2010 was estimated at around 15.7
billion USD - equivalent to 98 percent of GDP, according to the World Bank.
A lot of US dollar bills
International donors have been pouring vast sums of money into Afghanistan over
the past decade
The financial support has led to a remarkable GDP growth. The Afghan economy has
expanded at an average rate of more than nine percent between 2002 and 2012 one of the fastest in the world - increasing from a mere 2.4 billion to around 20
billion USD.
This growth has enabled giant strides to be made in areas such as education, health
and access to drinking water. But the many achievements cannot detract from the
fact that Afghanistan remains one of the most aid-dependent countries in the world,

receiving some of the highest official development assistance in comparison to the

size of its economy, according to the World Bank.
The Afghan government, for instance, depends on foreign money to fund about 60
percent of its budget expenditures and to offset its huge trade deficit. This overdependency on foreign aid makes the country vulnerable to any cutbacks in
international financial assistance.