Romanian Leu Gains Further on Aggressive Euro Selling

The leu ended at 4.2000/2010 per euro, compared to 4.2080/2095 per euro on Thursday.

"The leu appreciated today,” one dealer told SeeNews.

Euro-selling orders of local players and partly the upward trend of other currencies in the region such as the Polish zloty and the Hungarian forint backed the leu, he added.

The leu touched an intraday low of 4.2140 per euro in the morning before recovering beyond 4.20 in late trading, the dealer said, adding the leu may strengthen to 4.17 against the euro next week if it succeeds to break permanently through the 4.20 treshold.

BNR set its reference exchange rate at 4.2046 per euro on Friday, compared to 4.2132 per euro on Thursday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8625 versus Thursday’s 2.8524.

Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose to 2.920 billion lei on Thursday from1.847 billion lei on Wednesday. The BNR will issue Friday’s turnover figures on Monday.

Interest rates on overnight leu deposits rose to 9.18%/9.68% on Friday from 8.48%/8.98% on Thursday.