Romanian Leu Gains vs Euro on Positive Industrial Output Data, Ends Stronger

December 5 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu closed stronger versus the euro on Wednesday as news of a rise in the country's ten-month industrial output restored foreign investors faith in the local market, dealers said.

The Romanian currency opened at about 3.5650/70 per euro, but began gaining ground after 10 a.m. (0800 GMT), to close at 3.5340/65, one dealer told SeeNews.

"Today's data from the INS [National Statistics Institute] seemingly had a positive effect on the leu [...], currencies of other emerging markets also followed a somewhat positive trend during the day, including the Turkish lira," the dealer said.

The leu closed at 3.5645/85 per euro on Tuesday.

Romania's industrial output rose by 5.8% year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2007, the INS said on Wednesday morning. In October alone, the country's industrial output was 5.9% higher than a year earlier and was 6.3% higher than in September.

The Romanian central bank (BNR) set its reference exchange rate, used for statistical purposes, at 3.5463 per euro on Wednesday, compared to 3.5278 on Tuesday. For the dollar, the reference exchange rate was set at 2.4089 versus Tuesday's 2.4036 lei.

The BNR attracted 4.28 billion lei in two-week deposits on Monday at a 7.5% yield. Interest rates on overnight leu deposits were at an average 7.11%/7.74% on Wednesday from 7.06%/7.71% on Tuesday.

Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market fell to 838.7 million lei on Tuesday from 5.2 billion lei on Monday. The BNR will issue Wednesday's figures on Thursday.

Following are Wednesday'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 percent):