diff --git a/rate.py b/rate.py
index 331d5d7..478eba9 100644
--- a/rate.py
+++ b/rate.py
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ async def refresher(context):
   if time.time() - last_init > 24 * 60 * 60:
     # we'd better do this to prevent ruining the log file with massive fail logs
     # as this `refresher` would be called frequently
+    global last_init
     last_init = time.time()
     try:
       init()