Afghans struggling to cope with winter season amid price hike

KABUL: Afghans are struggling to cope with the upcoming winter season in the war-torn and cash-strapped country, as majority of the people live under the poverty line and can barely afford basic daily needs due to a price hike of commodities.

"The purchase of power is sliming day by day and people can't afford to buy wood or other necessities to cope with the winter and keep their homes warm in the chilly season," a wood buyer Yar Mohammad told Xinhua news agency.

Mohammad said that the skyrocketing prices of daily needs have sandwiched the ordinary people, adding that the closure of borders and freezing Afghan assets abroad has caused economic problems for Afghans.

"Borders are closed, banks don't have normal activities and Afghanistan assets abroad have been frozen," Mohammad said angrily. The US has reportedly frozen more than $10 billion since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August, which led to an uncertain situation where bank account owners have begun withdrawing their capital and local banks can not give more than $200 each week.

The country's economic situation worsens with a high inflation rate, increasing unemployment and growing poverty. The majority of people in Afghanistan do not have a central heating system in their homes and largely relying on the old-fashion heating system, the wood stove, to keep their home warm in the mountainous country.

"The business has flopped, the number of jobless people is on the rise and the economic situation is extremely unstable while the prices of fuel including petrol and diesel are going up day by day," a coal seller Mohammad Sabir whispered. (IANS)

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