Romanian Leu Firms Slightly vs Euro in Calm Trading

The leu ended at 4.2820/2850 per euro, compared to 4.2840/2890 per euro on Friday.

The Romanian currency continued to change hands in a tight range near the 4.29-per-euro notch as it has done over the last couple of days, one dealer told SeeNews.

Political uncertainty has been putting pressure on the leu since the beginning of the month after the country’s minority government fell in a no-confidence vote.

On Friday, Romania’s Prime Minister-designate Lucian Croitoru, an advisor to the central bank governor, unveiled his cabinet nominees and now has to convince opposition parties to back the line-up when it comes up for approval in Parliament which local media expect will happen on November 4.

Romania’s central bank, BNR set its reference exchange rate at 4.2877 per euro on Monday, compared to 4.2894 per euro on Friday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8513 versus Friday’s 2.8508.

Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market fell to 3.307 billion lei on Friday from 4.503 billion lei on Thursday. The BNR will issue Monday’s turnover figures on Tuesday. BNR on Monday injected 9.78 billion lei on the interbank money market through a one-week repo deal at a rate of 8.0%.

Interest rates on overnight leu deposits rose to 10.36%/10.86% on Monday from 7.49%/7.99% on Friday.