September 30 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu eased against the euro on Wednesday, weighted by political uncertainty, dealers said.
The leu ended at 4.2165/2195 per euro, compared to 4.1850/1900 per euro on Tuesday.
The Romanian currency opened at 4.1850 per euro and hovered around this mark in early trading before depreciating after 1000 GMT to an intraday low of 4.2265 per euro as a mix of factors set the tone of trading, one dealer told SeeNews.
According to the dealer, political uncertainty continued to influence the leu and to contribute to its depreciation. The dealer also thinks that the country’s central bank did not intervene indirectly on the market in late afternoon trading as it has done in the last couple of days and some investors took profits.
Earlier this week, the Social Democrats, PSD, threatened to leave their nine-month-old coalition with the centre-right Liberal Democrats led by Prime Minister Emil Boc if President Traian Basescu endorses Monday’s dismissal of Interior Minister Dan Nica, who is affiliated with the PSD. The two coalition partners share equal number of seats in the cabinet.
BNR set its reference exchange rate at 4.1981 per euro on Wednesday, compared to 4.1851 per euro on Tuesday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8619 versus Tuesday’s 2.8701.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose to 3.389 billion lei on Tuesday from 2.869 billion lei on Monday. The BNR will issue Wednesday’s turnover figures on Thursday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits rose to 10.96%/11.46% on Wednesday from 10.72%/11.22% on Tuesday.
“There is a huge demand for lei on the market and it is possible to see rates of 12-12.5% over the next few days,” she said.