Romanian Leu Weakens vs Euro on Profit Taking

The leu ended at 4.2845/2860 per euro, compared to 4.2605/2620 per euro on Wednesday.

The leu was following a depreciating trend during the whole trading session, in line with other currencies of emerging markets, one dealer told SeeNews. It seemed that some investors were booking profits, he added.

He added that the leu was more volatile than usual and changed hands between an intraday low of 4.2860 per euro and an intraday high of 4.2610 per euro.

Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.2733 lei per euro on Thursday, compared to 4.2597 on Wednesday. For the U.S. dollar, the BNR set its reference exchange rate at 2.8342 lei versus Wednesday’s 2.8355.

BNR's governor Mugur Isarescu said earlier this week that Romania will be unable to prevent growing pressure on the leu, which in turn would have a negative impact on inflation and the households' leu-denominated financial assets, without the 20 billion euro stand by deal led by the International Monetary Fund.

Earier this month the fund suspended Romania’s economic review under the stand-by arrangement and said it would postpone the third loan tranche until the country has a stable government in place.

Turnover on the interbank leu deposit market rose to 2.617 billion lei on Wednesday from 2.344 billion lei on Tuesday. The BNR will issue Thursday’s turnover figures on Friday.

Interest rates on overnight leu deposits fell to 8.48%/8.98% on Thursday from 8.53%/9.03% on Wednesday.