“Banking panic is countered with mounds of palpable cash. (…) The central bank keeps a reserve of printed money, several tens percent of the monetary mass,” Isarescu said within a seminar on the connection between monetary mass and inflation.
The central bank official added he does not wish to specify any numbers regarding the cash reserve.
According to central bank data, monetary mass is calculated on three levels. The narrow money (M1), cash in circulation and overnight deposits, was at 86.5 billion lei (EUR19.87 billion) at the end of January. The intermediate money (M2), M1 plus deposits with an agreed maturity of up to two years, had a value of RON212.4 billion. The broad money (M3), which includes M2 and other financial instruments, was RON216.67 billion at the end of January. (EUR1=RON4.3537)