December 7 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu closed weaker versus the euro on Monday after final results of Sunday's presidential run-off indicated incumbent Traian Basescu won the vote by a slim margin, dealers said.
The leu closed at 4.2305/2345 per euro versus 4.2180/2200 per euro on Friday.
Basescu, the informal leader of ruling Democratic-Liberal Party, PD-L, has won 50.33% of the vote, while Social Democrats' leader Geoana got 49.66% support.
"Many players on the market priced in the victory of Geoana in the run-off and that he will form a new cabinet relatively fast, but now it seems more difficult," one dealer told SeeNews. He added, however, that the leu did not depreciate as much as other currencies on emerging markets hit by low risk appetite on Monday.
Basescu's victory has raised concerns that an almost two-month political deadlock in the country started after a Basescu-backed cabinet fell in a no-confidence vote, will continue. Basescu, as new president, should name the country's next prime minister who will have to form a new government and restart key reforms of the economy and the justice system in order to win back the trust of international lenders, a key condition for the release of the next installments of a 20-billion euro bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It remains unclear how Basescu will succeed to gain approval for his nomination for prime minister, since he already failed to push through parliament his first two nominations. Opposition parties hold more than half of the seats in parliament.
Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2141 lei per euro on Monday, compared to 4.2062 on Friday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8449 lei versus Friday’s 2.7931.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market fell to 2.655 billion lei on Friday from 2.946 billion lei on Thursday. The BNR will issue Monday’s turnover figures on Tuesday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits were up to 8.37%/8.87% on Monday from 7.61%/8.11% on Friday.