BNR puts a halt on leus downfall. Exchange rates slide to 4.29 lei/euro
“The national currency had an opposite evolution compared to emerging currencies in the region with a sharp increase around noon. The move was likely determined by an indirect intervention of the central bank in the currency market,” said Ioan Birle, senior dealer at Banca Transilvania, NewsIn informs.
After a depreciation to 4.34 lei/ euro in the early trades, evolution attuned to the European markets, the national currency started to gain ground gradually, and before BNR’s announcement of the benchmark exchange rate, the euro fell sharply from 4.33 lei to 4.29 lei. Later on, the local currency remained near to this threshold, and at 16:40, the banks were buying euro at 4.2844 lei and sell it at 4.2956 lei.
In the region, Hungarian forint plummeted to record lows of over 291 units versus euro, while the Polish zloty lost ground, and exceeded 4.46 units against euro, the lowest rate since September 2004.
The benchmark rate announced by BNR on Friday indicates a 0.5% appreciation of the leu, up to 4.2910 lei/euro, compared to Thursday’s record of 4.3127 lei/euro.