Afghan government nearly brokeAccording to reports, the government of Afghanistan is in urgent need of $537 million as the central government is nearly broke due to a deadlock over presidential election that has put Afghanistan on the brink of a financial crisis.

Senior finance officials have said Afghan government needs a $537 million bailout from United States and other international donors within five or six days to continue paying its bills.

Alhaj M. Aqa, the director general of the treasury at the Ministry of Finance has told The Washington Post that the government has spent hundreds of million of dollars of easily accessible reserve funds this year.

Aqa warned that Afghanistan financial challenges are now “critical” as the government was barely able to cover the payroll of more than 500,000 national and provincial employees, with payroll deadlines for October is approaching.

This comes as finance minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal said last month that Afghanistan has suffered over $5 billion financial loss due to political impasse as a result of election deadlock.

Zakhil had also warned of economic crisis if the election deadlock was not resolved and the vote results was not released on time.

He said the deadlock has resulted to reduction in government revenue and warned that country would move towards an unstable condition if the deadlock persists.

Zakhilwal had also added that the government will be forced to cut jobs and reduce salaries of the government employees in case of an economic crisis in the country.

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