Most of us grew up listening to our parents and grandparents talk about how things used to be much cheaper and affordable in their days. Although we might not have understood the concept of inflation back then, we began to see its impact on our daily lives with time.
In 2020, governments responded to the global COVID-19 pandemic by injecting billions and trillions to revitalize their stagnant economies. However, as these economies reopened and local and retail commerce started picking up again, more money than goods were in circulation, leading to a steady increase in item prices.
Over the past few years since the covid-19 pandemic, countries globally have struggled to raise their economies out of these unfavorable conditions. Unfortunately for the citizens in these nations, as inflation increases, the value of money erodes, leaving them to watch the purchasing power of their savings reduce drastically.
The reality is even grimmer for people in emerging markets where the standard of living is already low, and inflation rates are in double digits.
According to Bloomberg, seven of the 10 worst-performing currencies against the United States dollar (USD) are African, with the Nigerian naira being the third-worst-performing currency in 2023. The naira is projected to experience its worst year in almost three decades in 2024, as the country is battling low oil production output and a concerning lack of foreign investment. .