Afghanistan Currency

Afghanistan Currency

On Monday Oct 7, 2002 Afghanistan’s interim government marked the first anniversary of U.S. air strikes that brought it to power by issuing new banknotes, aimed at reasserting central control over a war-ravaged economy.

The unit of currency in Afghanistan is the afghani, which is divided into 100 plus. Since 1981 the official rate of exchange has been fixed at 50 afghanis equal U.S. $1. However, the actual market rate of the afghani has fluctuated, and in 1994 2400 afghanis equaled U.S. $1. Dramatic inflation (with rates of up to 57 percent), which has been taking place in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion, contributed to the drastic decrease in the purchasing power of the afghani from 1981 to 1994.

In 2002, banknotes were introduced in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 Afghani. The 1, 2 and 5 Afghani notes were replaced by coins in 2005.