If You Think the Dollar is Weak…
How would you feel if an international financier offered to buy the coat off your back for 89,556 Lebanese pounds, or 42,112 Iranian reals? Would you jump at the offer?
You shouldn’t. Those happen to be the two weakest currencies in the world today, and the mysterious financier’s offer would translate to a single U.S. dollar.
A recent Forbes magazine article profiled the ten weakest currencies in the world, starting with Lebanon, which is torn by sectarian strife in the Middle East, with a depressed economy, crippling inflation, sky high unemployment rates and a banking crisis. Think of a perfect economic storm.
The Iranian rial comes in second; the currency has been around since before the U.S. broke away from England, but lately the oil rich Persian Gulf nation is living under heavy economic sanctions from pretty much all the world’s advanced economies.
That single U.S. dollar could buy 25,345 Vietnamese dong, 21,663 Laotian kip, 16,849 Indonesian rupiah or 11,862 Uzbekistan som. Other countries with ultra-weak currencies include the African nations of Guinea (francs), Burundi (franc), Madagascar (ariary) and the South American nation of Paraguay (guarani).
At the other end of the spectrum, if that financier offered you 89,000 Kuwaiti dinar, you should hand him your coat and go out and buy a house. Each dinar is currently worth $3.26.
