modities: opium, fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets,
wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semi-precious gems

Exports - partners: FSU, Pakistan, Iran, Germany, India, UK,
Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic

Imports: $150 million (1996 est.)

Imports - commodities: capital goods, food and petroleum products;
most consumer goods

Imports - partners: FSU, Pakistan, Iran, Japan, Singapore, India,
South Korea, Germany

Debt - external: $5.5 billion (1996 est.)

Economic aid - recipient: US provided about $70 million in
humanitarian assistance in 1997; US continues to contribute to
multilateral assistance through the UN programs of food aid,
immunization, land mine removal, and a wide range of aid to refugees
and displaced persons

Currency: afghani (AFA)

Currency code: AFA

Exchange rates: afghanis per US dollar - 4,700 (January 2000), 4,750
(February 1999), 17,000 (December 1996), 7,000 (January 1995), 1,900
(January 1994), 1,019 (March 1993), 850 (1991); note - these rates
reflect the free market exchange rates rather than the official
exchange rate, which was fixed at 50.600 afghanis to the dollar
until 1996, when it rose to 2,262.65 per dollar, and finally became
fixed again at 3,000.00 per dollar in April 1996

Fiscal year: 21 March - 20 March

Afghanistan Communications

Telephones - main lines in use: 29,000 (1996)

note: there were 21,000 main lines in service in Kabul in 1998

Telephones - mobile cellular: NA

Telephone system: general assessment: very limited telephone and
telegraph service

domestic: in 1997, telecommunications links were established
between Mazar-e Sharif, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad, and Kabul
through satellite and microwave systems

international: satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)
linked only to Iran and 1 Intersputnik (Atlantic Ocean region);
commercial satellite telephone center in Ghazni

Radio broadcast stations: AM 7 (6 are inactive; the active station
is in Kabul), FM 1, shortwave 1 (broadcasts in Pushtu, Dari, Urdu,
and English) (1999)

Radios: 167,000 (1999)

Television broadcast stations: at least 10 (one government run
central television station in Kabul and regional stations in nine of
the 30 provinces; the regional stations operate on a reduced
schedule; also, in 1997, there was a station in Mazar-e Sharif
reaching four northern Afghanistan provinces) (1998)

Televisions: 100,000 (1999)

Internet country code: .af