Central Bank: Romania has avoided serious recession thanks to exchange rate flexibility

Romania has avoided a dramatic recession like the one that gripped the Balkan states thanks to the flexibility of the exchange rate, chief economist of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) Valentin Lazea said at the central and Southeastern European financial forum in Bucharest.

The domestic currency's depreciation from 3.8 lei to 4.3 lei to the euro has attenuated pressures in the real economy but further depreciation of the leu should be avoided in the upcoming period, Lazea said.

In the first three months of 2009 Romania registered an economic decrease of 6.4 percent while Estonia's economy went down 15.6 percent, Latvia's economy 18 percent and Lithuania's economy 12.6 percent.

Agerpres