Money is weird. Especially in Kabul. If you've been checking the dollar to afn today, you probably noticed something that doesn't quite make sense on paper. Most people expect the currency of a country under heavy international sanctions and frozen assets to be worthless, yet the Afghani has been holding its ground with a stubbornness that frustrates even the most seasoned forex traders. It's a bizarre economic bubble.
Right now, the exchange rate isn't just a number on a screen; it’s a reflection of a very aggressive, very manual intervention by the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB).
Let’s be real. When the Republic fell in August 2021, everyone—and I mean everyone—assumed the AFN would go the way of the Zimbabwean dollar. We saw those images of people scrambling at the gates of the airport, and the immediate thought was "hyperinflation." It happened for a minute. The rate spiked. But then, the central bank started doing something old-school. They started auctioning off millions of dollars every week.
Why the Rate Isn't What You Think
If you’re looking at the dollar to afn today because you're planning a remittance or trying to understand the market, you have to understand the "Sarai Shahzada" effect. This isn't Wall Street. The heart of the Afghan economy is a multi-story building in Kabul filled with money changers shouting over each other. This is the open market where the real price is set, regardless of what the official DAB website claims.
The Taliban administration has banned the use of foreign currency for domestic transactions. That’s a huge deal. You can't just walk into a shop in Kandahar or Mazar-i-Sharif and pay in Pakistani Rupees or Iranian Rial like people used to. You use the Afghani. This forced demand creates a floor for the currency. It's artificial, sure, but in the world of macroeconomics, "artificial" still buys you bread.
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Then there’s the UN cash shipments. These aren't secrets. Since early 2022, the UN has been flying in literal pallets of cash—U.S. dollars—to fund humanitarian operations. We’re talking about roughly $40 million arriving almost every week. While this money doesn't go directly to the central bank, it enters the local economy through aid workers, procurement, and salaries. These dollars eventually hit the Sarai Shahzada, providing the liquidity needed to keep the AFN from crashing.
The Hidden Risks of Holding AFN
Is the Afghani actually strong? Honestly, no. It’s "stable," which is a very different thing.
The strength of a currency is usually tied to exports, GDP growth, and foreign direct investment. Afghanistan has almost none of those things in a traditional sense. What it does have is a massive trade deficit. Most of the stuff on the shelves in Kabul—the cooking oil, the flour, the electronics—is imported from Pakistan, Iran, or Uzbekistan. To buy those things, Afghan traders need dollars.
If the central bank stops their weekly auctions, or if the UN stops flying in the "humanitarian cash," the dollar to afn today would look radically different within 48 hours. It's a high-wire act.
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How to Read the Market Right Now
If you're tracking the dollar to afn today, don't just look at Google's ticker. Those rates are often delayed or based on interbank estimates that don't reflect the reality on the ground in Kabul or Herat. Instead, you need to look at the "Hawala" rates.
- Check the DAB auction results. The central bank usually announces when they are injecting $15 million or $17 million into the market.
- Watch the border. When trade with Pakistan gets choked off at Torkham or Chaman, the demand for dollars fluctuates because transit is interrupted.
- Seasonal demand matters. During Eid or winter months when aid is ramped up, the flow of money shifts.
The volatility is actually lower than you'd expect, which is the weirdest part. The de facto authorities have implemented strict capital controls. You can’t just take $10,000 out of the country through the airport. They will stop you. They will take it. These "iron-fist" policies have done more to stabilize the AFN than any complex monetary theory could have.
The Impact on the Average Person
For the person on the street, a "stronger" Afghani should mean lower prices. But it doesn't. This is the "stickiness" of the Afghan economy. Even when the dollar to afn today shows the Afghani gaining value, the price of flour in the bazaar rarely drops. Merchants are terrified of future instability, so they keep their prices high to hedge against the next inevitable crash.
It’s a brutal cycle for the poor. They earn in AFN, which is supposedly stable, but they buy goods priced against a "phantom" dollar rate that merchants use to protect their profit margins.
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What You Should Do
If you are sending money home or managing a business that deals with Afghan trade, your move is "don't hold."
Basically, the AFN is a currency for transactions, not for savings. Because the stability is built on external cash injections and strict bans on other currencies, it is inherently fragile. It’s like a house of cards that has been glued together—it looks solid, but if the wind changes, the glue won't hold.
Keep your eye on the "Cash-to-AFN" ratio in the informal markets. If the gap between the official rate and the Sarai Shahzada rate starts to widen by more than 2% or 3%, it's a signal that liquidity is drying up. That’s your cue that a correction is coming.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Use reliable local sources: Follow the official X (formerly Twitter) account of Da Afghanistan Bank for auction dates; they are surprisingly transparent about when they dump dollars into the market.
- Hedge your timing: If you’re sending a large sum, wait for the day after a DAB auction. That’s usually when the AFN is at its strongest for the week due to the fresh influx of USD.
- Diversify holdings: Never keep 100% of your operating capital in AFN. Given the political climate, the risk of a sudden "black swan" event—like a change in UN funding or new international banking restrictions—is too high.
- Monitor regional neighbors: Keep an eye on the Pakistani Rupee (PKR). Often, movements in the PKR lead to speculative trading in the AFN because the two economies are so tightly linked through informal trade.