Afghanistan seen running out of funds as poll deadlock drags on

By Jessica Donati KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan government is running out of funds despite an influx of millions of dollars in aid as a deadlock over who won the election drives a sharp decline in revenues, already suffering from the drawdown of thousands of foreign troops. The government faces difficulty paying salaries next month and has once more gone cap in hand to donors for help, a senior finance ministry official said on condition of anonymity, because of the sensitivity of the topic. Foreign powers have poured billions of dollars of aid into Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, but the country's next leader is unlikely to receive the same levels of financial support. The size of the gap to date is unclear, but the most recent data on the finance ministry's website shows domestic revenue in the first six months of 2014 fell 27.5 percent short of a target of 60.2 billion Afghanis ($1.1 billion). Read More http://ift.tt/1oCIoIQ