Eight numbers to worry about in 2021

Exactly three years ago, I wrote one of my most popular articles for Stears Business. It is now called the "₦1 = $1 fallacy", but the original title was "The fetishisation of the nominal exchange rate". The article's agenda was to reduce Nigeria's obsession with the exchange rate—it's how many people measure if things are going well in Nigeria's economy. And worse, policymakers sacrifice other areas of the economy to protect the naira's peg to the dollar. 

However, as I explained in the 2017 article, this behaviour is flawed. It's perfectly normal to have a weak exchange rate and still have an economy that is doing well. One good example of this is China, where they actively try and force the exchange rate to depreciate to improve the economy. 

Similarly, it's also possible to have a strong exchange rate that can destroy an economy. A good example is Nigeria in

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