The 10 Weakest Currencies: The Global Depreciation Ranking in 2025

When you see R$ 5.44 for the dollar and complain about devaluation, pause for a moment. There are countries where the population wakes up facing monetary crises that make any unfavorable exchange rate a child’s play. The Brazilian real closed 2024 as the worst-performing currency among the main economies, with a decline of 21.52%, but this is insignificant compared to the fragility that permeates other currencies around the planet.

In 2025, a scenario marked by persistent inflation, political instability, and regional economic collapses transformed several currencies into living symbols of monetary fragility. This article explores the 10 most depreciated currencies in the world and the mechanisms that lead a currency to collapse.

The Pillars of Monetary Collapse: Why Some Currencies Simply Disappear

Before diving into the ranking, it is essential to understand the machinery behind monetary fragility. A weak currency is never a coincidence – it is always a reflection of poor political decisions and structural economic imbalances.

Galloping Inflation as a Destruction Engine: While Brazil monitors prices oscillating around 5% in 2025, there are nations where monthly inflation reaches double digits. This phenomenon, known as hyperinflation, literally guts purchasing power and turns savings into worthless paper in a few weeks.

Shards of Political Institutions: Coup d’états, internal wars, governments losing credibility every quarter. When legal security disappears, international investors flee in droves, and the local currency becomes a decoration in toy supermarket displays.

Economic Isolation: International sanctions cut off access to the global financial system. Without the ability to import or export, the domestic currency becomes useless paper for any relevant international transaction.

Empty Gold Reserves: A Central Bank without adequate foreign exchange reserves cannot defend the currency when speculative pressures increase. It’s like trying to pay debt with empty pockets.

Capital Flight: When even citizens prefer to hide dollars rather than trust the local currency, you have the definitive proof that everything has collapsed. This behavior reveals genuine economic despair.

Ranking of the 10 Most Depreciated Currencies in 2025

1. Lebanese Pound (LBP) – Absolute Catastrophe

Current quote: 1 million LBP = R$ 61.00

The Lebanese Pound has irrevocably earned the title of the most devalued currency in the world. The official rate set at 1,507.5 pounds per dollar exists only in government documents. In the streets of Beirut, you need more than 90,000 pounds to buy a single US dollar.

The situation has reached such extremes that banking institutions have implemented strict withdrawal limits, while merchants refuse the local currency. Ride-hailing drivers demand payment in dollars, turning the pound into a practically useless currency for daily transactions.

2. Iranian Rial (IRR) – Economic Isolation in Action

Current quote: 1 real = 7,751.94 rials

American economic sanctions act like a bulldozer on Iran’s monetary structure. With R$ 100, you become a “millionaire” in rials, a phenomenon that perfectly illustrates the currency’s collapse.

The young Iranian population has discovered an unexpected alternative: cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin and Ethereum have transcended their role as speculative assets to become genuine instruments of value preservation, surpassing the reliability of the national currency itself. This mass migration to digital assets represents a profound change in the economic behavior of an entire generation.

3. Vietnamese Dong (VND) – Structural Weakness in Economic Growth

Current quote: approximately 25,000 VND per dollar

Vietnam presents a fascinating economic paradox: a country with a consistently expanding economy, yet whose currency remains historically depreciated. This disconnection arises from deliberate monetary policy choices that keep the dong artificially weak.

For tourists, this fragility is a blessing. With US$ 50, you experience a sense of opulence for weeks. For Vietnamese, however, it means imported goods become unattainable luxuries, and their international purchasing power virtually disappears.

4. Laotian Kip (LAK) – Regional Isolation and Fragility

Current quote: approximately 21,000 LAK per dollar

Laos faces a triple challenge: a small dependent economy, expensive imports, persistent inflation. The kip gradually deteriorates, and in border regions with Thailand, merchants prefer to accept Thai baht instead of the Laotian currency.

5. Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) – The Largest Economy, the Weakest Currency

Current quote: approximately 15,500 IDR per dollar

Paradoxically, Indonesia commands Southeast Asia’s largest economy while its currency remains among the weakest globally. Since 1998, the rupiah has failed to break this chronic depreciation trajectory.

This reality makes Indonesia (especially Bali) an irresistibly cheap tourist destination. R$ 200 daily turns Brazilian travelers into local princes, with extraordinary purchasing power.

6. Uzbek Sum (UZS) – Insufficient Reforms

Current quote: about 12,800 UZS per dollar

Uzbekistan has implemented significant economic reforms over the last decade, but the sum still bears the weight of decades of a closed economy. Although the country seeks to attract foreign capital, the currency remains depreciated, signaling market distrust.

7. Guinean Franc (GNF) – Resource Wealth, Currency Poverty

Current quote: approximately 8,600 GNF per dollar

Guinea exemplifies the classic resource curse scenario: abundance of gold and bauxite does not translate into a strong currency because political instability and systemic corruption erode any potential economic advantage.

8. Paraguayan Guarani (PYG) – Weak Neighbor, Consumption Opportunities

Current quote: about 7.42 PYG per real

Our neighbor Paraguay maintains a reasonably stable economy, but the guarani remains structurally weak. For Brazilian consumers, this perpetuates Ciudad del Este as an undeniable paradise for international shopping.

9. Malagasy Ariary (MGA) – Poverty Reflected in Currency

Current quote: approximately 4,500 MGA per dollar

Madagascar ranks among the poorest nations on the planet, and its ariary embodies this reality. Imports become extremely expensive, and international purchasing capacity completely vanishes.

10. Burundian Franc (BIF) – The Extreme of Depreciation

Current quote: about 550.06 BIF per real

Closing this macabre ranking: a currency so depreciated that significant transactions require carrying bags literally filled with banknotes. Burundi’s chronic political instability directly manifests in its currency collapse.

Lessons from a Monetarily Fragile World

This panorama of the 10 most depreciated currencies in 2025 goes beyond mere financial curiosity. It functions as an economic X-ray revealing how politics, institutional trust, and macroeconomic stability serve as interconnected pillars.

For Brazilian investors, clear lessons emerge:

Fragile Economies Offer Systemic Risks: Depreciated currencies may seem like opportunities at first glance, but the underlying truth is that these countries face deep structural crises that perpetuate fragility.

Opportunities Exist in Consumption Markets: Destinations with depreciated currencies become financially advantageous for tourists arriving with stronger currencies (dollar, euro, or real in some cases).

Practical Macroeconomic Understanding: Tracking currency decline provides visceral education on how inflation, corruption, and instability turn into real economic suffering for entire populations.

Recognizing these factors is not merely an academic exercise – it’s a foundation for building solid perspectives as an investor. Global monetary volatility reinforces a fundamental truth: preserving and amplifying wealth requires allocating capital into assets that transcend national borders and withstand the devastating effects of local inflation.

The financial future belongs to those who understand these global dynamics and use them to protect their wealth.