🎬 The $200b Club

Good morning. If the moon starts complaining that it wants more attention, that’s because Earth just brought home a mini-moon and everyone is obsessed with it. Yesterday, a space rock the size of a school bus became trapped in Earth’s gravitational pull and will orbit our planet for the next two months, after which it will escape and return to its normal path around the sun. Mini-moons don’t come around too often, though they aren’t unheard of—the last known one was spotted in 2020.

But two whole months for a mini-moon? Usually, it’s a long weekend.

— Tayo Davies, Edna Akanni.

ECONOMY
Zimbabwe’s latest currency is on the brink

They’re running it back. Just six months in and it looks like Zimbabwe’s latest currency experiment might be going down a dead end…again.

The central bank devalued the ZiG by 43% against the dollar on Friday, meaning that almost half the value of the ZiG, short for Zimbabwe Gold, has been wiped out since its early April debut. For weeks, the ZiG stacked up declines on official and parallel markets, rendering pricing a nightmare for businesses.

The signs are ominous.

Inflation is surging. There aren’t enough US dollars circulating in the economy, and Zimbabwe is suffering through its worst drought in four decades. As a result,

• Merchants, public transport operators, and other institutions are rejecting the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) after the reserve bank devalued the currency by 40% on Friday. 

• On Monday, the ZiG traded at 24.88 against the greenback compared to 24.39 on Friday. It further slipped to 25.1305 on Tuesday.

• Zimbabwe’s headline inflation quickened to 1.4% in August. Analysts claim this figure is padded by the government, with real figures estimated at 894% in real-time.

Broken promises. For Central Bank Governor, John Mushayavanhu, the latest currency turmoil rips apart his promise to be different. When he unveiled the new currency in April, he promised a world of competitiveness with the US Dollar, famously claiming the currency would not devalue under his watch.

Zooming out: Private bankers say it is too early to call the demise of the new currency, describing the central bank’s move as a ‘reset’ more than anything. They also warned against completely withdrawing the US Dollar from circulation too soon, potentially turning away investors.

Before the ZiG began its big slide, the government had hoped to make the gold-backed currency the sole currency unit by 2026. -TD.

TRENDING

SHOWER THOUGHTS

SNIPPETS

• Not the way to go. Nigerians on Tuesday staged mass protests against economic hardship as the West African nation marked its 64th independence anniversary, with the President calling for more patience with his government.

• Yikes. FIFA has banned Cameroon football great, Samuel Eto’o from national team games for 6 months. He faces two charges from an incident during the under-20 Women’s World Cup in Columbia on Sept. 11th.

• Bleeding cash. Egypt declared on Sunday, losses totaling $6 billion as ships now avoid crossing the Suez Canal due to attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. The Houthis in turn say they are targeting ships linked to Israel and its backers as a gesture of support for the Hamas resistance in Gaza.

• Again, yikes. Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by SpaceX, has doubled its base subscription prices in Nigeria, citing soaring inflation. The standard residential plan with a 1 TB fair usage policy will now cost ₦75,000 ($48), up from ₦38,000 ($24).

• Dikembe Mutombo, a basketball Hall of Famer from the Democratic Republic of Congo passed away on Monday from brain cancer. He’s been touted as one of the greatest shot blockers and defensive players in the history of the NBA.