December 21 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu weakened against the euro on Monday, amid low volumes, unaffected by the cabinet line-up revealed by Prime Minister-designate Emil Boc on Sunday, dealers said.
The leu closed at 4.2175/2190 per euro versus 4.2050/2100 per euro on Friday.
"Fluctuations of the exchange rate were not very large and volumes were low today. [...] No major events, which could influence the leu, took place. The currency had no reaction to the cabinet line-up announced by Boc," one dealer told SeeNews.
The leu opened at 4.2120 per euro and then appreciated to hit an intraday high of 4.2075, the dealer added.
Boc nominated on Sunday incumbent Economy Minister Adriean Videanu to the same post and independent Sebastian Vladescu as Finance Minister, to replace Gheorghe Pogea. Boc’s Democratic Liberal Party, PD-L, holds seven out of 17 ministerial posts in the proposed cabinet. Hungarian minority party, UDMR, has four nominations, including the party head Marko Bela as deputy Prime Minister. The proposed cabinet has five independent members.
It seems that Boc, whose government fell in a no-confidence vote in October, has garnered enough support in the legislature to ensure the approval of the proposed cabinet. The country needs a new government fast in order to put an end to a two month-old political deadlock and restart key reforms of the economy and the justice system. These conditions are vital for winning back the trust of international lenders, a key condition for the release of the next instalments of a 20-billion euro bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2119 lei per euro on Monday, compared to 4.2057 on Friday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.9368 lei versus Friday’s 2.9241.
Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market fell to 2.244 billion lei on Friday from 2.794 billion lei on Thursday. The BNR will issue Monday’s turnover figures on Tuesday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits fell to 11.18%/11.68% on Monday from 11.31%/11.81% on Friday.