Forget the pound, this is the world performing currency in the world
Reuters/NIR ELIAS
That auspicious honour falls to Mongolia, the sparsely populated east Asian country wedged between China and Russia. The country's currency, the tugrik, has fallen for 22 consecutive days against the dollar, making for the worst run since at least 1993, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The tugrik ended Tuesday down 1.7% in Asian trading, according to Google Finance.
In 22 days, the tugrik has fallen by 7.8% against the dollar since the beginning of August, making it by far the worst performer of all currencies tracked on Bloomberg's terminal. In 2016, it has fallen more than 11%.
The pound has fallen 14% since the UK voted to leave the European Union, but is only down roughly 3% on the dollar since August 2. Most of sterling's recent fall came in late June and early July, when it dropped like a rock following the decision to leave the European Union.
Here's how the tugrik looks against the greenback since late July:
Google Finance
"We are in a deep state of economic crisis," Choijilsuren Battogtokh, the finance minister in Mongolia, said in a nationally televised address last Tuesday, according to Bloomberg.
"We came into a situation where we may not be able to afford to finance salaries and operational costs of government departments, such as the Mongolian military who protect our borders and national security, the social and health employees who are in charge public health, as well as individuals in culture and sport."
The country has been hit hard by the slowdown in China, which is one of its most crucial export partners, and has felt the force of slumping commodity prices in recent years. Roughly 80% of Mongolia's exports come from mining, with the country producing huge volumes of gold, copper, and coal every year.
This slump has been made worse by the fact that Mongolia's economy expanded rapidly over the past few years. As Nathan VanderKlippe, a Canadian journalist based in Mongolia, noted in May, Mongolia has "gone from Asia's golden child to its binge-drinking adolescent."
Things are so bad for Mongolia that the International Monetary Fund has dispatched a delegation to the country to begin talks about solving its economic challenges, local television reported, according to Bloomberg.
The IMF says that the visit is part of its "routine global practice to establish early contact with newly elected governments." Mongolia's government recently changed, with the Mongolian People's Party under new prime minister Jargaltulgyn Erdenebat, winning 65 of 76 seats in the country's parliament at an election in June.
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