November 13 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu closed unchanged against the euro on Friday, unaffected by official estimates released earlier in the day showing a less-than-expected economic contraction in the third quarter, dealers said.
Romania's gross domestic product (GDP) fell by an annual 7.1% in the third quarter of 2009 and was 7.4% lower on the year in the first nine months of 2009, beating analyst expectations of a sharper fall, a flash estimate of the country's statistics board indicated on Friday.
The leu ended at 4.2990/3030 per euro, compared to 4.2990/3020 per euro on Thursday.
"The GDP data had no impact on the local currency and even enthusiasm in the first half of the trading session, when currencies in the region firmed, did not succeed to stir the leu," one dealer told SeeNews, adding that the leu traded around 4.30-per-euro during the day.
Currencies of emerging markets in the region rose after GDP data of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary, released on Friday, indicated that some of the economies in the region show signs of recovery.
Romania’s central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2978 lei per euro on Friday, compared to 4.2967 on Thursday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8893 lei versus Thursday’s 2.8747.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose to 4.100 billion lei on Thursday from 3.743 billion lei on Wednesday. The BNR will issue Friday’s turnover figures on Monday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits fell to 6.82%/7.32% on Friday from 7.09%/7.59% on Thursday.