KABUL: The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) on Tuesday said the country’s exports increased by eight percent, but investments decreased by 30 percent in 2015.
AISA chief Qurban Haqju told a press conference here that Afghanistan’s economic growth in 2015 had been estimated by the government, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at 5-6 percent.
But the Central Statistics Organisation (CSO) said the economic growth was 1.5 percent in 2015 and the World Bank said it was 0.5 percent, Haqju said.
He cited the CSO annual statistics report on economic growth in 2014 and said the growth had declined from 6.5 percent to 2.2 percent in 2015 due to the cut in foreign aid.
Last fall’s presidential elections, the increase in insecurity, people’s concerns about future and the lack of a stable economy were reasons behind the decreasing economic growth, he said.
“Had infrastructure projects been implemented during the past 14 years in sphere of dams, roads, agriculture and mines, these problems would not have been occurred,” he said.
In 2014, he said, the registered investment stood at $850 million but declined to $590 million in 2015, showing nearly a 30 percent reduction.
He said the government revenue in 2015 increased by 20 percent, but due to the devaluation of the afghani against the US dollar.
