The leu opened at 4.265/4.267 to the euro, from 4.276/4.279 to the euro at Friday closing. It later traded above 4.27 units, on low volumes.
At around 10:00 local time (GMT0700), the leu traded at 4.267/4.27 per euro.
“The leu rose Monday on the international markets, where some leu/euro transactions were made, and now, when the Bucharest market opened, the quotations are lower. The volumes are reduced, and the second-quarter GDP data had no impact,” a dealer said.
Romania’s second-quarter gross domestic product rose 0.2% in seasonally adjusted data compared with the previous quarter. The GDP growth was significantly lower from 0.7% in the first quarter, but the slowdown was expected by analysts.
Most investors await the results of the meeting between Germany chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the European debt problems later Tuesday, the dealer said. “Players are watching what is happening on the foreign markets, not in Romania.”
After the first hour of trading, the other currencies in the region were down against the euro, with the Polish zloty losing 0.4%, and the Hungarian forint down 0.5%.
The negative sentiment in the region was triggered by German GDP data, weaker than expected. The German economy expanded by just 0.1% in the second quarter, after a 1.3% surge three months earlier.
Friday, the Romanian central bank set the leu’s reference rate at 4.2784 per euro, about 0.2% stronger on the day.
On the money market Tuesday morning, overnight rates hovered around Friday levels of 5.5%-6.5% a year.