Currency and Banking in Afghanistan

Currency and Banking in Afghanistan

The unit of currency in Afghanistan is the Afghani, which is divided into 100 puls. The exchange rate of the Afghani has fluctuated widely over time. High inflation rates of up to 57 percent contributed to a drastic decrease in the purchasing power of the Afghani from 1981 to 1994, a trend that continued during the Taliban regime. The Afghani was so devalued by two decades of wartime inflation that the government issued a new Afghani, with a higher value per note, in late 2002. The exchange rate subsequently stabilized, and in 2005 one U.S. dollar was worth about 49.50 Afghanis.

Afghanistan’s central bank, founded in 1938, is the largest bank in the country. The central bank issues all notes, executes government loans, and lends money to cities and to other banks. All private banks in Afghanistan were nationalized in 1975, mostly because a lack of clear terms for borrowers and lenders had made it difficult for people to use the country’s credit resources. No stock market or other modern form of economic development exists in Afghanistan. Instead, traditional “money bazaars” exist to provide money-lending and foreign exchange dealings. This informal and largely undocumented money transfer system, called hawala, is common throughout the Middle East and South Asia, and is considered to be one of the means by which terrorism from this part of the world has been funded.

 

Aksum Economy

The power of Aksum was based largely on trade. The Red Sea was an important thoroughfare for trading vessels at the time. Merchants from the Roman Empire traveled up and down the sea, trading in harbors along both the African and Arabian coasts, and sailing with the favorable monsoon winds on to India. Aksumites exported local products such as ivory, tortoise shell, hippopotamus hide, spices, incense, gold, obsidian, emeralds and other precious stones, and slaves. These items were exchanged for manufactured goods from the Mediterranean, including iron weapons, articles made of precious metals, glassware, cloth of great variety, garments, pottery, wine, and olive oil. Excavated Aksumite tombs contain many of these foreign objects, particularly glassware.

For the first few centuries of the kingdom’s existence, trade was conducted by barter and direct exchange of commodities. In about ad 270, during the reign of King Endubis, Aksum began minting coins in the style of Roman coins. Coinage made the exchange of products and tax collection more convenient, facilitating Aksumite trade. Aksumite coins were made of gold, silver, and bronze, and carried the name of the ruler in whose name they were issued. The coins are therefore important to historians’ understanding of the history of Aksum, providing royal names and a rough chronology of events.

As in most ancient societies, the internal economy of Aksum was based mainly on agriculture. The kingdom produced enough food to be self-sufficient. The main cereal crop may have been wheat, since a head of wheat is shown on coins. Aksumites most likely also grew teff, an indigenous cereal grain widely used in the region today. Although Aksum commonly imported iron weapons, iron was also smelted locally and manufactured into tools and weapons.

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Airbus

Airbus is one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world. The company sells a variety of passenger airplanes to airlines around the world. European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) owns 80 percent of Airbus, and Britain’s BAE Systems PLC (formerly British Aerospace) owns the other 20 percent. Airbus’s headquarters is near the city of Toulouse, France.

Airbus Industrie was formed in 1970 to counter the dominance of the commercial aircraft market by United States companies, specifically The Boeing Company, Lockheed Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Corporation), and McDonnell Douglas Corporation (now merged with Boeing). European aircraft companies that lacked the resources to compete against the larger U.S. companies on their own decided to share development costs. Original partners in the consortium were Sud Aviation of France (later Aerospatiale Matra SA) and Deutsche Airbus of West Germany (later DaimlerChrysler Aerospace of Germany; see DaimlerChrysler AG). Construcciones Aeronauticas SA (CASA) of Spain became a partner in 1971, and British Aerospace joined the consortium in 1979.

The first Airbus aircraft, the A300, was a wide-body twin-engine jet that accommodated up to 250 passengers. In 1971 Air France ordered six A300s, becoming Airbus’s first customer. Initially Airbus had difficulty marketing the airplane outside the consortium’s member countries, but the 1973 world oil crisis sparked new interest in the fuel-efficient A300. The plane entered service in 1974. By 1975 airlines had ordered more than 40 A300 planes. In 1978 Airbus launched a smaller version, called the A310. By the early 1980s Airbus had surpassed McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed and ranked only behind Boeing in the production of commercial jets.

In 1984 Airbus introduced the A320, the first aircraft with fully computerized cockpit controls. The A320 became the fastest-selling jet in aviation history. In 1987 Airbus launched two larger models, the A330 and A340, with capacities of up to 380 passengers. As Airbus became more successful, it came under harsh criticism from U.S. jet makers, who charged that the company’s government subsidies allowed it to price planes lower. Airbus posted its first operating profit in 1991.

In 1996 Boeing and McDonnell Douglas announced that they would merge into one company, a development that prompted Airbus to consider changing its corporate structure. To increase efficiency and competitiveness, the four Airbus partners agreed to transform the consortium into a centralized company operating under a single management team. The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) was created in 1999 from the merger of three partners in the Airbus consortium: France’s Aerospatiale Matra, Germany’s DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, and Spain’s CASA. The following year the fourth partner, Britain’s BAE Systems, agreed to make Airbus an integrated company. In 2001 Airbus Industrie became a single company, Airbus, ending its long status as an industrial consortium.

In 2000 Airbus launched production of the A380, a superjumbo jet with seating on two decks capable of carrying 555 passengers in a typical three-class configuration. The aircraft, scheduled to enter service in 2006, will eclipse Boeing’s 747-400 as the largest commercial passenger aircraft. The move ended Boeing’s monopoly on jumbo jets.

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The Functions of Advertising Departments

The Functions of Advertising Departments is usually divided into various segments. Each advertising department has a specific function or assignment. Once one department has completed its work, it hands off the completed assignment to the next department in the advertising process until the ad campaign is completed. The first department that becomes involved in an advertising campaign is the research department. The Functions of Advertising Departments as much as media publishing is concerned is important for shaping what the ads would look like.

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The Cultural Impact of Advertising

The Cultural Impact of Advertising has generated some arguments for and against in certain quarters. Some are of the opinion that foreign culture alien to a particular area is imported while others merely see it as a means of learning other people’s way of life. Advertising can affect cultural values. Some advertising messages, for example, encourage aggressive individualism, which may clash with the traditional cultural values of a country where the collective or group is emphasized over the individual or humility or modesty is preferred to aggressiveness. With the globalization of the world economy, multinational corporations often use the same advertising to sell to consumers around the world. Some critics argue that advertising messages are thus helping to break down distinct cultural differences and traditional values, causing the world to become increasingly homogeneous.

Many advertising campaigns, however, have universal appeal, overriding cultural differences, or they contribute to culture in a positive way. Humor in advertising has made many ad campaigns widely popular, in some cases achieving the status of folklore or taking on new life in another arena. For example, a popular ad campaign for a fast-food chain with the slogan “Where’s the beef?” became part of the 1980 Democratic presidential primary campaign between Gary Hart and Walter Mondale. The ad ridiculed a competitor by depicting a small hamburger patty dwarfed by a huge bun. During a primary debate one of the candidates used the ad slogan to suggest that his opponent’s campaign lacked substance. The Cultural Impact of Advertising is however such that when a particular product is advertised the culture of the originators many a time are clearly visible.

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The Economy of Afghanistan

A decade of Soviet occupation, war, and economic manipulation followed by years of civil war left the economy of Afghanistan in shambles. Even in the 1970s, prior to the wars, Afghanistan had one of the lowest standards of living in the world. As the Soviet-Afghan War and its effects spread throughout the country in the early 1980s, two separate economies emerged: the urban financial and industrial facilities, tied especially to the Soviet Union, and the largely independent rural subsistence economy. The production, trafficking, and movement of drugs and weapons became a major hidden part of the economy.

Over the centuries, Afghans have developed a number of different strategies to earn a living from their difficult environment. Most Afghans are settled farmers, herders, or both, depending upon ecological, economic, and political factors. They are usually self-sufficient in foodstuffs and other necessities. Industry and mining developed considerably in the 20th century, but local handicrafts remained important.

In 1956 the government launched the first of several five-year plans. Irrigation efforts and development of a better road and telecommunications network had top priority, with later efforts toward production of textiles, cement, electricity, fertilizer, and grain storage facilities. Progress was made to develop better trade with the outside world, especially with Europe, the United States, and Japan. Major nations aided Afghanistan in building roads, dams, hydroelectric facilities, airports, factories, and irrigation networks. After the Soviet invasion in 1979, development aid from the West ceased, and until 1991 Afghanistan was economically dependent on the USSR. Following the collapse of the Taliban regime in late 2001, Afghanistan began the reconstruction of its war-ravaged economy with assistance from international financial institutions and individual countries. The Economy of Afghanistan from the foregoing cannot be said to be fully developed due often times to the impact of war and unstable governments.

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The Functions of Advertising Departments: Media Buying

The Functions of Advertising Departments: Media Buying is usually handled by the media department. Once the target audience has been identified, an agency’s media department determines the most effective way of delivering the message to that target. The media planner is the person who decides which media will be used. The media planner must consider three factors: (1) the number of people to be exposed to the message, known as the reach, (2) the number of times each person needs to be exposed to the message in order to remember it, known as the frequency, and (3) the costs.

The media planner wants to reach the largest possible percentage of the target audience. To accomplish that goal, the media planner must employ the media that have audiences closely resembling the target audience. If the target is very broad, such as the national market for medium-priced automobiles, the media planner will probably select network television, which has a broad reach. If the target is more narrow and specialized, then the media that reach a more specialized audience, such as magazines, would be selected. Moreover, since not all members of the narrow target audience read the same magazines, the media planner might employ a range of magazines to reach a larger percentage of the intended consumer.

The media planner must also determine how frequently the advertising should run in each medium. Frequency is important because repetition helps the consumer remember both the product and the advertising message.

Finally, because no advertiser has an unlimited amount of money to spend, cost is also a factor. The media planner must choose those media that will enable the advertiser to reach the largest percentage of the target with enough frequency for the message to be remembered without exceeding the advertiser’s budget. Once this media plan has been put together, the agency’s media buyer contacts the media on behalf of the client in order to purchase advertising space or time at the best possible rate.

Often an advertising campaign will employ many types of media. For example, to help advertise a medium-priced automobile, the ad campaign may consist initially of national television advertising to raise brand awareness, followed by local newspaper and radio advertising to reinforce the message and to direct consumers to a special sale at a local dealer. The Functions of Advertising Departments: Media Buying Is usually the final stage after all processes for an advert has been concluded.

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The Functions of Advertising Departments: Research

The Functions of Advertising Departments: Advertising agencies employ research for both strategic and evaluative purposes. Strategic research enables the agency to better understand how consumers use a product or service and how they regard the product or service. Strategic research also determines the types of people most likely to buy the product. That group of people is called the target market. Advertisers have limited budgets so knowing who is most likely to buy a particular product helps them spend their advertising budget more efficiently. Evaluative research is used after the advertising has run and seeks to determine how well consumers remember the advertising message and how persuasive it was. Evaluative research is expensive, and as a result, many advertisers do not employ it. Instead, they try to measure the advertising’s effectiveness by analyzing sales results.

Agencies use both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Agencies employ qualitative research to gain an initial understanding of the marketing situation (see Marketing). This research method uses open-ended questions that allow consumers to explain their values, beliefs, and behaviors at length. One of the most common qualitative research techniques is the focus group in which a moderator leads a small group of consumers in a candid discussion of a particular product category, service, or marketing situation.

Agencies use quantitative research to determine a final course of action. This type of research uses close-ended questions in which answers are selected from a set list. This enables the researcher to determine the exact percentage of people who answered yes or no to a question or the exact percentage choosing answer a, b, or c. One of the most common quantitative research techniques is the survey in which researchers use a questionnaire to gain information from a large group of people, called a sample. Statistical studies show that if the sample is large enough, about 1,000 people, and is representative of a particular group (for example, working mothers who buy disposable diapers), then the findings from the sample are considered true, or statistically valid, and can be extended to the entire group of consumers in that category. The Functions of Advertising Departments: The findings provided by quantitative research are therefore conclusive in a way that qualitative research cannot be.