In Summary:
- Eugene Nagbe, a stalwart of the Congress for Democratic Change, claimed in a Facebook post on May 17 that Liberia’s exchange rate has reached a historic milestone – hitting L$200 to US$1 for the first time since the country’s founding in 1822.
- We have verified this claim by consulting authoritative sources, including the Central Bank of Liberia website, and found this statement misleading.
- The exchange rate first reached L$200 to US$1 in July 2019, during the administration of former President George Weah
Eugene Lenn Nagbe, Chief of Staff of ex-President George Weah, claimed in a Facebook post on May 17 that Liberia has reached a historic economic milestone – marking the first time since 1822 that US$1 is exchanged for LD$200.
Mr. Nagbe made this claim by sharing a screenshot from a Facebook blog highlighting the rising exchange rate on the Liberian market.
Currently, the exchange rate, according to the Central Bank of Liberia’s daily rate, is LD$198 to US$1. However, on the market the rate varies between LD$198 – LD$200 to US$1.
The Claim
An excerpt of Mr. Nagbe’s post reads, “Today, Liberia reached a historic economic milestone! For the first time since 1822, the LD is now 200 to 1 USD.”
Rating Justification
To verify this claim, we reviewed the Central Bank of Liberia’s official website, which provides daily exchange rates. We specifically focused on the daily rates published by the CBL from July 5, 2012, to May 17, 2025.
Based on our review of the CBL daily rates, the Liberian dollar first depreciated to LD$200 to US$1 on July 13, 2019. The data shows that the buying rate as published by the CBL was L$200.1036 to US$1 while the selling rate was LD$201.7338 to US$1.
The rate continued to rise through November 2019, hitting the highest point at LD$210.8 to US$1. As seen below in the screenshot, on November 1, 2019 the buying rate was LD$210.8017 to US$1 while the selling rate was LD$212.1971 to US$1.
Conclusion
Based on these facts, we conclude that the claim made by Eugene Nagbe, that the Liberian dollar has reached its lowest value (LD$200 to US$1) for the first time under the current administration “since 1822”, is misleading.
The exchange rate first reached this highest peak in 2019, during the former administration.
