Romanian Leu Opens Down Vs Euro, Tracking Regional Mkts

The leu opened Tuesday at 4.23 to the euro, slightly lower from 4.2245/4.226 at Monday’s closing.

It further depreciated and traded at 4.2365/4.2375 versus the euro at around GMT0715. It touched an early low of 4.239 units against the single currency.

The leu correlated its evolution with the negative sentiment in the region that was fueled by the depreciation of the Hungarian forint, after the Hungarian central bank decided Monday to keep the monetary policy key rate at 5.25%, for the fourth month in a row.

Romanian central bank set Monday the reference rate at 4.2244, from 4.2304 units a day before.

On the monetary market Tuesday morning, overnight rates were at 4.5%-5.5% a year, higher from 1.97%-2.47% a day before.