High Euro Demand Pushes Leu Above 4.48 Units

12.23.2013 By Bogdan Neagu

The Romanian leu weakened in the second part of Monday session, nearing the Friday closing levels, despite trading stronger earlier in the day.

The leu traded above 4.48 against the euro in the second half of last week, for the first time since June, but it slid below that level Monday morning.

However, in the afternoon high corporate demand for hard currency pushed the leu above the 4.48 mark once again.

The leu closed at 4.4825/4.483 to the euro, similar to Friday closing values, after it had opened at 4.4775/4.48 to the euro.

The Hungarian forint and the Czech koruna were gaining up to 0.3% against the European currency, while the Polish zloty traded slightly down.

The Romanian central bank set the leu’s exchange rate at 4.4756 per euro, almost unchanged on the day.

On the money market, overnight rates were slightly up to 0.9%-1.4% a year, from 0.8%-1.3% a year on Friday.