November 6 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu ended little changed against the euro on Friday in a calm trading session, unfazed by a decision of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union to delay the disbursement of aid to the government until the political situation in the country stabilises, dealers said.
The leu ended at 4.3000/3030 per euro, compared to 4.3020/3040 per euro on Thursday.
"Despite the announcement by the IMF, the leu remained stable today. It was traded around the 4.30-per-euro mark during the day, between an intraday high of 4.2990 and intraday low of 4.3065," one dealer told SeeNews.
The IMF said earlier on Friday it has suspended Romania’s economic review under a stand-by arrangement and will postpone its third loan tranche until the country has a stable government in place. Also on Friday, the European Commission said it postponed the disbursement of a second loan tranche of 1.0 billion euro to Romania under the stand-by arrangement until the country meets the terms of the deal. Romania signed a 20 billion euro ($30 billion) aid deal with the IMF, the European Union and the World Bank in March to support its crisis-hit economy.
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 on Wednesday.
Romania’s central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2988 lei per euro on Thursday, compared to 4.2995 on Thursday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8862 lei versus Thursday’s 2.8961.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose to 2.340 billion lei on Thursday from 2.165 billion lei on Wednesday. The BNR will issue Friday’s turnover figures on Monday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits rose to 9.74%/10.24% on Friday from 9.92%/10.42% on Thursday.