UN: 97% of Afghanistan’s population may sink below poverty line

Usually this time of year all the bricks at the factory just outside Kabul would have been sold.

Now they have more than 2 million bricks left over, unsold.

When the Taliban swept into power, they found Afghanistan's economy fast approaching the brink and were faced with harrowing predictions of growing poverty and hunger.

With drought ongoing, the United Nations predicts 95% of the population will go hungry and as much as 97% of Afghanistan risks sinking below the poverty line.

The Taliban, a movement born out of the rural clergy, struggled to grasp the extent of the transformation.

At a local money exchange market in Kabul, people wait from the early morning to collect money sent from relatives and friends overseas.

But every person is only allowed to receive $200 US dollars per week, with a days-long waiting list.

The United States froze billions in dollar reserves in line with international sanctions against the Taliban, eroding the liquidity of both the central bank and commercial banks and constraining their ability to make international transactions.

This has undermined international trade, a mainstay of the Afghan economy.