October 27, 2002	Sunday	Sha’aban 20,1423

KABUL, Oct 26: The head of Afghanistan’s central bank said on Saturday he had asked the government to investigate reports that banknotes were being printed abroad illegally, after the currency hit an 11-month low against the dollar this week.

Governor Anwarul-Haq Ahadi told a news conference the bank also intended to purchase around $5 million in local currency in order to prop up the afghani, which was trading at 59 new afghanis to the dollar on Saturday from 48 a week ago.

The fall, the swiftest since President Hamid Karzai came to power last December, has coincided with the introduction of new banknotes on October 7, with one new afghani equivalent to 1,000 old afghanis.

The introduction of a new currency has prompted many people to cash in their old notes for dollars before the deadline for exchange on December 5.

But there is also widespread talk that foreign companies who used to print old afghanis for different regional warlords have rushed to print more notes before the deadline expires. This talk has been fuelled by the appearance of crisp new bundles of old afghani notes which have turned up in the market.—Reuters