The currency of a Middle Eastern country regularly tops rankings of the weakest in the world – and Elon Musk’s net worth converts to a 17-figure sum there.
Lebanon faces various challenges, including a depressed economy, massive inflation and political instability.
It hasn’t helped that the country has been struggling with a banking crisis since 2019, with its economy further hit by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
These issues have contributed to its currency plummeting in value. One Lebanese Pound (LBP) currently equals just £0.0000089 or $0.000011 (USD).
Musk, the world’s richest man by some distance, is currently estimated by Forbes to have a net worth of $396.8billion, largely thanks to the combined value of his various companies, including SpaceX and Tesla.
This sum would convert to a staggering 35,491,314,997,760,000 LBP, or 35.4 quadrillion.
Currencies are classed by economists as weak when their value is low or decreasing in comparison to others.
Various factors can drive currency depreciation, including political instability, changes to the inflation rate, and dropping export revenues.
Iran’s Rial currency (IRR) is also among the weakest in the world, with £1 currently converting to 0.000019.
Iran’s economy has also struggled for years under crippling international sanctions over its rapidly advancing nuclear program.
It’s now thought to enrich uranium at near weapons-grade levels.
Donald Trump signed a memorandum to reimpose harsh sanctions which he had originally set down during his first term, but which had largely remained unenforced by President Biden who wanted to renegotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal which Trump had unilaterally withdrawn from.
The country continues to be highly dependent on extracting petroleum and natural gas for export, its one major industry.
