The leu could drop below RON 3.60/€1

The National Bank of Romania (BNR) announced a Friday reference rate of RON 3.6130/€1, down RON 0.0574 from Thursday’s rate. This is the highest decline in a single day in more than two months. The appreciation of the leu is due to a favorable regional context and sales by foreigners of foreign currency. At the end of the foreign currency session, the national currency depreciated back to the RON 3.63/€1 level, due to bad news from the US which reflected that consumer trust dropped in April to its lowest in the past 26 years, and that General Electric posted 2007 results below expectations, reducing its targets for this year, which fueled declines on the stock exchange.

Raiffeisen analysts believe that the level of interbank interest rates will be high in the 20-25 April period, similar to last year, as several banks are registering acute deficits of liquidity.