Romanian Leu Ends Flat vs Euro in Calm Trade

"The 4.3 [per euro] mark proves to be a difficult one to cross so the leu is now trading less actively. Besides, the central bank is not for the time being intervening to help it appreciate," one dealer told SeeNews.

The leu has been losing ground against the euro in the last two weeks as concerns about how the country's new government will handle an expected economic slowdown fuelled negative sentiment among investors towards the currencies of emerging markets and especially towards the leu, dealers have said.

Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2764 lei per euro on Thursday compared at 4.2772 lei on Wednesday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set the reference exchange rate at 3.2491 lei versus Wednesday's 3.2316 lei.

Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market fell to some 2.43 billion lei on Wednesday from 2.93 billion lei on Tuesday. The BNR will issue Thursday's figures on Friday.

Interest rates on overnight leu deposits fell to an average of 12.01%/12.84% on Thursday from 12.24%/13.13% on Wednesday.

Following are Thursday's average bid and ask quotes of commercial banks on Romania's interbank market. They were calculated at 1100 (0900 GMT) by the BNR, based on data provided by 10 commercial banks (in pct):