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Hard Numbers: Iran kills four zeros, Putin hits all-time low, EU sees worst contraction ever

Hard Numbers: Iran kills four zeros, Putin hits all-time low, EU sees worst contraction ever
0000: With the value of the Iranian rial plummeting amid low oil prices and crippling US sanctions, the government has decided to simply slash four zeroes off of the value of its currency. While moves like this are an accounting trick, the thinking is that they can have a positive psychological effect for consumers and lenders. Over the next several years, Iran's rial will be replaced by a new currency called the toman.

59: Russian President Vladimir Putin's approval has fallen to 59 percent. That's not bad by global standards, but it's the lowest mark for him since he first took power two decades ago. Plummeting oil prices and rising coronavirus deaths are taking a toll on his power.

7.4: The European Commission predicts that the coronavirus crisis will cause the EU's economy to shrink by 7.4 percent this year, the largest annual contraction in the bloc's history. On the upside, Brussels predicts a swift recovery in 2021, with GDP growing by 6 percent.

1.9 trillion: Last year countries around the world spent a total of $1.9 trillion on weapons, the highest mark on record for SIPRI, an arms watchdog. The US, which accounted for nearly forty percent of that, spends more than the next nine countries combined. Now that countries are fighting the "invisible enemy" of coronavirus, will that number fall?

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