The increase in forex transactions in September exceeded 10% compared to the summer months, when volumes barely reached EUR35 billion, central bank (BNR) data reveal. Compared to September 2010, the traded value is EUR4.5 billion higher.
“It was a more hectic month for all financial markets because of the sovereign debt crisis,” a dealer commented. “The risk appetite of investors went down and they sold those the assets seen risky. It was only natural that we should see such moves on the Romanian market, too.”
The previous peak of the forex market had been reached in January, when traded volumes were close to EUR38 billion, the highest level in two years. The highest traded volume since the onset of the crisis was registered in January 2009, when it reached EUR40 billion.
Despite the September surge, the forex market is still far behind the all-time high of EUR59 billion recorded in October 2008, during a period dubbed by the central bank governor Mugur Isarescu as a “speculative attack” on the leu.
Last month, the leu lost almost 3% of its value, going from RON4.23 to the euro at the beginning of the month to over RON4.35 t the euro in the last trading day of September.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)