The leu opened at 4.5 per euro, stronger from 4.5115/4.5145 per euro at Thursday closing. It soon fell below the 4.5 mark and traded at 4.495/4.497 per euro at around 10:00 local time (GMT0700).
The US central bank Thursday said it would buy $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities monthly, and pledged to keep the interest rates low until at least 2015 to support the economy. The announcement lifted the mood on international financial markets and investors turned to risky assets, which favored the currencies in the Eastern Europe among others.
In other markets, the Hungarian forint was up 0.3% versus the euro, while the Polish zloty gained 0.5%.
Romania’s central bank set Thursday the leu’s official rate at 4.5073, the weakest in a month.
On the money market Friday morning, overnight rates were at 4.5%-5% a year, very little changed from the previous day.