“We don’t face domestic problems that may cause the leu to lose ground. The depreciation of the national currency is caused almost entirely by the situation in the euro zone and by speculative pressure. It is quite different from what happened in 2008-2009, when depreciation was triggered by a repositioning of foreign investments and by capital outflows,” Negritoiu said in an interview for Pro TV.
According to Negritoiu, saying that the central bank keeps the leu’s exchange rate under control is a simplistic way of explaining facts.
The central bank cannot ignore the size of euro-denominated loans in the entire portfolio, which exceeds 60%. Transferring pressure onto the monetary market would result in higher interest rates on leu-denominated loans, and the central bank can’t afford to adopt this measure now, he explained.
Romania doesn’t have inflation or unemployment problems, Negritoiu highlighted.