Angola Overtakes Nigeria as Owner of Most Battered Oil Currency

(Bloomberg) -- Oil currencies have been hammered since crude prices crashed almost four years ago, and none more so than Angola’s.

After a series of devaluations that started in January, the OPEC member’s kwanza has now lost 55 percent of its against the dollar since June 2014, when Brent crude began its slide from a peak of $115 a barrel.

It’s overtaken Nigeria’s naira as the worst-performing major oil currency in that period, excluding crisis-ridden Venezuela’s bolivar.

Russia’s currency is not far behind. The ruble, floated in late 2014 after the central bank gave up trying to defend it, recovered in 2016 and 2017 along with oil prices. But the U.S.’s new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and listed companies last week hit the nation’s assets hard. The ruble is down 9 percent versus the greenback this week, extending its loss since mid-2014 to 47 percent.

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