High Money Mkt Rates Push Romanian Leu Up Vs Euro

The leu opened at RON3.64/RON3.6420 to the euro, slightly weaker compared with Tuesday’s closing value at RON3.6370-RON3.6390 against the euro.

"The Romanian leu registered a slight depreciation in early trade, due to the negative sentiment on the foreign stock exchanges and was in line with the losses of the currencies in the emerging markets. On the monetary market, the interests are still very high," Ciprian Dascalu, a dealer at Millennium Bank told MEDIAFAX early- Wednesday.

At about 0925 GMT, local investors stopped the transactions on the monetary market due to extremely high interest rates, but the foreign demand for Romanian currency continued to be high, pushing interests for swap contracts up to 500% a year.

Early Wednesday, overnight rates were at 18.89%- 57.00% against Tuesday’s level of 15.21-53.28%. Weekly rates were around 15.96%- 46.19 on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the central bank computed an indicative of 3.5909 against the euro, higher compared to Tuesday’s level of 3.6027.

On Tuesday, the leu closed at RON3.6370-RON3.6390 against the euro, stronger compared with RON3.6450 – RON3.6500 to the euro on Monday.