Market participants speculate the lower foreign reserves were due to repeated interventions in the money market from the central bank to keep the leu from weakening too much against the euro. They estimate the central bank sold over EUR200 billion in the first half of November to prop the national currency.
Foreign exchange inflows rose to EUR1.1 billion in November, from EUR383 million in October. Total outflows reached EUR1.55 billion, down from EUR1.8 billion in the previous month.
The central bank’s gold holdings were steady at 103.7 metric tons, but their value adjusted for international gold price increased to EUR4.27 billion, from EUR4.1 billion in October.
Romania’s overall international reserves were at EUR36.02 billion in November, down from EUR36.3 billion a month earlier.
The payments due on public and publicly guaranteed external debt in December amount to EUR108.3 million, the data showed.