Zig is something I have blogged about in the past when it was first introduced and I believe @buggedout has mentioned it a couple of times.
In case you haven't heard of it before, it's a new gold backed currency that was introduced in Zimbabwe a couple months ago in an effort to uplift their economy from the shitter and combat the raging inflation.
The Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG; code: ZWG) has been the official currency of Zimbabwe since 8 April 2024, backed by US$575 million worth of hard assets: foreign currencies, gold, and other precious metals. It replaced the Zimbabwean dollar, which suffered from rapid depreciation, with the official exchange rate surpassing 30,000 Zimbabwean dollars per U.S. dollar on 5 April 2024, whilst the parallel market rate reached 40,000 per U.S. dollar. Annual inflation in Zimbabwe hit 55.3% in March 2024.Wikipedia
Fast forward a week ago and the IMF published a positive report about it and its impact on the country's stability.
The main key points of the report were:
- It has helped stabilize the Zimbabwean economy after a period of instability earlier this year.
- Inflation is expected to be around 7% for the rest of the year, significantly improved compared to the numbers experienced by previous Zimbabwean dollar.
- Economic growth is projected to slow down to 2% in 2024 due to drought but is expected to rebound to 6% in 2025.
Tldr, a positive and mildly optimistic report with the IMF emphasizing the need for continued discipline and policy improvements.
You can read more on the story on Bloomberg. Here's a no-paywall link
I guess the zig experiment been successful? Dunno it's probably too early to be definitive. But they probably are better, or less worse, with zig than the old toilet paper they had for currency 😂
Now all I need is a few countries adopting the silver standard and I can retire early in my silver stack 🤫😂