Romanian Leu Falls To 3-Yr Low Vs Euro

The Romanian leu fell to a three-year low against the euro Monday, amid average volumes, echoing regional depreciating trends and worsening investor sentiment about Romania's weak economic fundamentals, dealers said.

The Romanian central bank said the leu weakened to RON3.7202 against the euro midday Monday from RON3.6972 Friday, according to its indicative daily average rate. It was the leu's lowest level since February 7, 2005.

Traders said the leu was trading at RON3.7350/RON3.7380 to the euro at midday, weaker than RON3.7/RON3.7040 at Monday's open and RON3.6890/RON3.69 at Friday's close.

The leu depreciated in line with other emerging market currencies, like the Polish zloty or Hungarian forint, which lost around 0.60% against the euro by midday, despite steps taken by the central bank and the Romanian finance ministry to drain excess liquidity from the market, dealers said.

The bank and the finance ministry drained a total RON3.44 billion at an average interest rate of 8% Monday.

The leu was at RON2.5694 to the U.S. dollar Monday from RON2.5290 Friday, according to the central bank's indicative daily average rate.

Mediafax