(Reuters) – Afghanistan’s economic outlook is grim. Per capita income has fallen more than a third since the Islamist Taliban seized power. Foreign forces have also been withdrawn, according to the World Bank on Wednesday.

Tobias Haque (World Bank Senior Country Economist, Afghanistan) stated that Afghanistan is now one of the most impoverished countries on the planet.

“The Afghan economy is at risk of being isolated following the last August’s political crisis,” he stated in a briefing to release the first update by the World Bank on Afghanistan since August.

Foreign governments led by the United States cut security and development aid in response to the Taliban’s takeover. The strict enforcement of sanctions also destabilized the banking system.

According to the World Bank’s update, 37% of Afghan households didn’t have enough income to pay for food and 33% couldn’t afford it.

International community has withheld international aid and maintained financial sanctions due to Taliban inability to fulfill Western requirements, including education access for girls.

In a statement, accompanying the update, the World Bank declared that Afghanistan’s outlook was “dreadful” under current circumstances.

The World Bank forecast that Afghanistan’s per capita real gross domestic product (GDP), if current conditions continue, would fall by 34% between 2020 and 2022. This reverses all of the progress made since 2007.

After the Taliban had sent high school girls back to their homes, the United States called off planned US meetings for March. Some of these would have been held by the World Bank.

Donors, foreign governments, and Afghans were angered by the U-turn. Taliban officials have previously claimed that all schools would be opened.