The national currency has fallen on Friday to another historic low against the European single currency, the exchange rate set by the National Bank of Romania (BNR) being of 4.7648 units.
It is the tenth historic low level this month.
The US Dollar has reached the level of RON 4.2034, up by 0.36% against the one on Wednesday, setting the way for fuel price increases in the coming period and thus to further price increases on the market.
The Swiss Franc has reached RON 4.2213, up against Wednesday (4.1946).
The same trend was recorded for the GBP, which is closing the threshold of RON 5.5. On Friday the exchange rate was set at RON 5.4929, up from 4.4424 two days ago.
The gram of gold has reached RON 173.4522, up against RON 173.0400 on Wednesday.
PSD asks BNR to stand up for the national currency
The ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) has asked the National Bank of Romania (BNR) in a Facebook post on Friday to defend the national currency.
“In 2016, BNR governor Mugur Isarescu used to say that <BNR defends the national currency, ensures the stability of the prices and defends those over 3-4 million of Romanians who have bank credits>. Today, BNR has reserves of over RON 36.8 billion, meaning more than the double of the cash money circulating in Romania. So, it has enough resources to defend the national currency. Next to millions of Romanians who have bank credits, we ask BNR to do its job (…) We ask BNR to do its job and defend the national currency and the Romanians’ mortgages (…),” reads the PSD post.
On Thursday, PSD had stated that BNR is the only institution entitled to control the RON-EUR exchange rate.
In retort, Adrian Vasilescu, the adviser of the central bank governor, Mugur Isărescu, explains that the confidence in the Romanian economy “has weakened” and the foreign exchange markets have reacted on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.
“For there are many actors on these markets and the investors have bought state titles worth billions of Ron the noise on our market have caused concern. I wouldn’t say the confidence in the Romanian market has dropped, but I would say it has weakened. We saw a big explosion on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, which took the exchange to 4.78,” Adrian Vasilescu explained.
The BNR adviser also pointed out that the National Bank of Romania cannot announce all its interventions on the market in public, for this is the international practice. He added that the exchange rate would have been very high today of BNR hadn’t interfered at all so far.