The leu opened at 4.545/4.547 per euro, from 4.5432/4.5437 per euro at Wednesday close. It further lost ground and touched an early low of 4.55 against the euro before turning to modest gains. Market participants believe the central bank stepped in and sold foreign currency to prevent the leu from weakening too much.
At around 10:15, the leu traded at 4.544/4.5485 to the euro.
According to market participants, the leu’s evolution was not affected by economic data for the third quarter. The statistics institute said the gross domestic product declined 0.5% in real terms compared with the previous three months.
In the first nine months, the economy expanded at an annualized rate of 0.2% in unadjusted data, pointing to zero full-year growth or even a recession.
The central bank set the leu’s reference at 4.5388 to the euro Wednesday, weaker on the day.
In the money market Thursday morning, overnight rates were at 5.4%-5.9% a year.