KABUL (PAN): Afghanistan’s central bank is printing new currency notes worth one hundred billion afghanis ($203,087,000), a senior official announced on Sunday.

During an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Da Afghanistan Bank governor said the fresh bills would be released to the market by the end of the year.

Noorullah Dilawari said the decision, approved by the central bank’s executive council, was driven by the country’s cash requirements. Notes of 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 afs denominations are being issued.

He added that notes of 10, 5, 2 and 1 afs would not be printed in the near future, because the national exchequer had enough stocks of them for the next two decades.

Without giving the exact cost, he called currency printing an usual practice for the Da Afghanistan Bank. “On average, the printing of each note accounts for 4 cents,” he reckoned.

From time to time, the bank releases fresh notes and withdraws the old ones, according to the official, who said the Afghan legal tender was meant to be in circulation for three to five years.

Replacing the old notes, the current bills were printed during President Hamid Karzai’ interim administration in 2002. Since then old notes worth 50 billion afs had been withdrawn, the governor concluded.

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