The leu opened at 4.439 to the euro and further depreciated, hitting an intraday low of 4.4501 per euro. It later rebounded, as trading volume picked up. Overall trading was EUR184 million, a rather high volume for a summer session.
Neighboring currencies had a similar evolution today.
The central bank set the leu’s reference at 4.4455 to the euro, the lowest rate in more than two weeks. Against the US dollar, the leu’s indicative lost 0.7% to 3.3278 units, the weakest level since late January.
In the money market, overnight rates fell to 0.7%-1.2% a year, from 1%-1.5% a year Tuesday.
Central bank governor Mugur Isarescu said earlier today that his institution is ready to further narrow the gap between interbank rates and the monetary policy rate so that banks feel comfortable enough to resume lending, even if the move might reflect into a less stable exchange rate for the leu.
“We are ready to close the gap between the interest rates in the market and the monetary policy rate, because lenders need a greater stability of the rates,” Isarescu said at the presentation of the central bank’s quarterly inflation report.