Looking back to the world of a year ago, open borders, naked faces and all-you-can-eat buffets feel remarkably foreign. In December 2019, few of us could have predicted how volatile the upcoming year would be.

2020 continues to be tumultuous for the global economy, as impacts of conditions throughout the year come due, and new issues emerge to impact markets. Below find our summaries of some of the month’s biggest changes in foreign exchange.

Lebanon’s economy was struggling before the catastrophic explosion on August 4. Severe cash shortages, a widening gap between official and parallel market exchange rates, increasing poverty rates, high unemployment, and periods of high protest activity have impacted Lebanon over the past year. Inflation is high and many assignees have to use unfavorable rates when purchasing at least a portion of their goods.

2020 has been a devastating and unpredictable year for the global economy as we wade through the deepest global recession since the Second World War. Widespread lockdowns, the oil price war rolling into the collapse of demand, and the devastation of hospitality and tourism industries have all created an unprecedented and uncertain start to the second decade of the 21st century.

The scenarios are eerily similar: Onlookers filming an initial explosion and fire, before a more severe explosion and shockwave sends them running and knocks them off their feet. Ammonium nitrate. Dangerous storage at an industrial port.

Warning: Links in this story contain graphic images and video. On August 4th around 6pm local time, Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut was rocked by a series of explosions in the port area of the city. The shaking from the second and largest explosion was equivalent to a 3.3-magnitude earthquake, and there are reports that it was heard and felt as far away as Cyprus, 240km away.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the interconnected fall in global oil demand in the first half of 2020, many locations throughout the world are experiencing price changes and shortages of goods and services items.

2020 has been a year of historic economic upheaval. (Access the December 23rd update of this article to see our most recent data, accompanied by a review of 2020 and expectations for 2021.)

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt global markets, depreciation has slowed in many locations and some currencies are beginning to recover lost value. Let’s take a look at some notable currency movements of the past month.

June 1 marked a day of changing times in Venezuela. The price of gasoline in the country has been among the lowest in the world for decades, and in recent years, currency depreciation has made the resource practically free.