November 9 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu closed slightly stronger against the euro on Monday in a calm trading session, but political uncertainty in the country keeps pressuring the currency, dealers said.
The leu ended at 4.2950/3000 per euro, compared to 4.3000/3030 per euro on Friday.
"Today was an extremely calm trading session. The leu was traded in a tight range between 4.2950 and 4.2980 per euro during the day," one dealer told SeeNews, adding that the Romanian currency was lagging behind emerging market currencies in the region due to the political crisis in the country.
"It is difficult to predict what will happen with the leu as in conditions of political uncertainty anything is possible," he said.
Political uncertainty has been high in Romania following the fall of the country's minority government in October and the rejection of prime minister-designate Lucian Croitoru's cabinet by parliament last Wednesday. Two days after, Romania’s President Traian Basescu nominated the mayor of one of Bucharest districts, Liviu Negoita, as prime minister-designate.
According to analysts, Negoita who is member of ruling Democrat-Liberal Party, has slim chances of winning approval for his cabinet in parliament, where the opposition controls two-thirds of the seats.
Basescu, who is running for re-election on November 22, by law, can not dissolve parliament or call early general election in the last six months of his term. The winner of the presidential vote can call a general election in December at the earliest, if Liviu Negoita's proposal for a cabinet fails to win parliament approval.
Romania’s central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2968 lei per euro on Monday, compared to 4.2988 on Friday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8655 lei versus Friday’s 2.8862.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose to 2.881 billion lei on Friday from 2.340 billion lei on Thursday. The BNR will issue Monday’s turnover figures on Tuesday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits rose to 9.64%/10.14% on Monday from 9.74%/10.24% on Friday.