Romanian Central Bank revives Euro when down at 2 years low

(Initially published in www.romania-report.ro - Feb 16, 2005)


Since Feb 15 2005, the National Bank of Romania (NBR) intervened several times on the inter-bank market in order to buy Euros.

On Tuesday only, NBR attracted some euros 100 million, as dealers assessed. Yesterday, the EU currency went down to 35.515 Romanian lei (ROL) / euro, the lowest level in last two years.

The Euro took by surprise the Romanian public. Some rushed to switch their saving accounts to ROL, others rushed to buy euros, hoping in the return to the “natural” level of over 40,000 ROL per Euro.

The Central Bank begun to buy Euros shortly after the transaction session opened yesterday, at a 34,700 rate.

On NBR official exchange rate for Thursday is of a 37,840 ROL per Euro. Banks’ officials expect the Central Bank to involve again, in case the euro starts falling back.

Romania Report