Romanian Leu Gains vs Euro in Line with Emerging Market Currencies

The leu hit an intra-day low of 3.87 in the first hours of trading before recovering to an intra-day high of 3.8050 on buy orders from commercial clients and in line with peer emerging market currencies, one dealer told SeeNews.

In the last few days the leu has been losing ground because of falling overnight rates in Romania and the depreciation of other emerging currencies in the region.

Interest rates on overnight leu deposits rose to an average of 9.58%/10.39%, compared to 7.86%/8.89% on Wednesday.

Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate, used for statistical purposes, at 3.8258 lei per euro on Thursday, compared to 3.8421 lei per euro on Wednesday. For the U.S. dollar, the reference exchange rate was set at 3.0554 lei versus Wednesday’s 3.0425 lei.

Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose to almost 3.045 billion lei on Wednesday from 2.555 billion lei on Tuesday. The BNR will issue Thursday 's figures on Friday.

Following are Thursday's average bid and ask quotes of commercial banks on Romania's interbank market. They were calculated at 11 a.m. (0900 GMT) by the BNR, based on data provided by 10 commercial banks (in pct):