June currency review

On 1st June, Malawi's central bank heavily devalued the kwacha to try to address serious shortages of hard currencies. With inflation already high, mainly due to global prices for energy and foodstuffs, inadequate access to foreign currencies is causing scarcity of imported goods and consequently higher prices for them.

Meanwhile, recent slumps in the Laos kip and Zimbabwe dollar continued in June, as both countries' economic crises deepened. The Brazilian real and Chilean peso, both of which have made significant gains in recent months, were pulled back as global prices for their main commodity exports fell due to the world's economic slowdown.

The Armenian dram continued to strengthen in June as the country's improving economic outlook was confirmed by a good report from the IMF, while interest rates are also rising. The remarkable rebound of the Russian rouble also persisted. However, the strongest currency in the world in June was the Tajikistan somoni, which made substantial gains against all other currencies. Its value tends to be engineered by the central bank, which probably hopes that stronger exchange rates will dampen inflation.

In other currency news, Sierra Leone redenominated the leone on 1 July, by striking three zeros off its nominal value.

Finally, here is this month's selected currency movements table: