Business & Economics

The Ministry of Vice and Virtue and Complaints (MoVVC) has instructed traders and shopkeepers to refrain from hoarding and to sell goods in accordance with the approved price list, warning that violators will face legal action.

Afghanistan’s trade volume with Central Asian countries recorded a significant increase in 2025 compared to the previous year, with imports rising by 43 percent and exports by 77 percent, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) said on Tuesday.

The municipality has closed hundreds of shops in the capital of southern Ghazni province following a sudden rise in food prices, citing the ongoing conflict in Iran as a pretext.

The prices of Indian sugar, Kazakh flour and Arabic gold surged, while cooking oil, fuel and Russian gold declined in outgoing week in Kabul, market sources said on Saturday.

The value of the afghani against the US dollar has risen by more than 11 percent compared to ten months ago. According to money changers and economic experts, higher inflows of foreign currency, the conversion of UN assistance into afghanis and regulatory measures by the central bank are the main factors behind this increase.

The Director of the Afghanistan Standard and Quality Authority (ASQA), Mawlawi Faizullah Tamim, held discussions with Turkmen officials to strengthen cooperation in the standardization of goods and the export of Turkmen oil and gas to Afghanistan based on established standards.

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) has announced that, under an agreement with the geological company Uzbekgeofizika JSC, 2D seismic survey operations have commenced for the Mohammad Jan field, Ahmadabad, and Shumar blocks in the Afghan–Tajik oil basin.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has approved a plan to establish a free trade zone linking Iran, Afghanistan and China, reports IRNA.

Turkmenistan’s former president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov says the first section of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) gas pipeline is expected to reach Herat province by the end of 2026.

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced that Japan has contributed $4 million to support vulnerable families in Afghanistan.

The Afghanistan Standard and Quality Authority (ASQA) has returned a 46-tonne shipment of substandard construction materials via the Sheikh Abu Nasr Farahi port to the exporting country.

The prices of Indian rice surged, while gold declined in outgoing week in Kabul markets, market sources said on Saturday.