Romanian Leu Ends Week Stronger vs Euro

"There is a major influx of foreign currency from investors from abroad buying lei - there is an increasing interest for the leu in the last two days [...] Similar is the situation in the case of [the currencies in] other emerging markets in the region," Ovidiu Chiriac, dealer with Bucharest-based Eximbank told SeeNews.

He dismissed market rumours about a central bank intervention on the market on Friday and a day earlier, when the leu reversed a downwards trend, and suggested that the reason for the leu's comeback was rather the current economic slowdown in euro-zone countries.

Economy declined by 0.2% in the euro zone during the third quarter of the year, compared with the previous quarter, according to flash estimates published earlier in the day by Eurostat, the statistics office of the European Union.

Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate, used for statistical purposes, at 3.7379 lei per euro on Friday, compared to 3.8121 on Thursday. For the U.S. dollar, the reference exchange rate was set at 2.9444 lei versus Thursday's 3.0493 lei.

Interest rates on overnight leu deposits were set at an average of 13.06%/14.69% compared to 13.36%/15.50% on Thursday.

Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose slightly to 1.817 billion lei on Thursday from 1.8 billion lei on Wednesday. The BNR will issue Friday's figures on Monday.

Following are Friday's average bid and ask quotes of commercial banks on Romania's interbank market. They were calculated at 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) by the BNR, based on data provided by 10 commercial banks (in pct):