According to the BNR data published yesterday, the foreign exchange-denominated reserves of the National Bank of Romania (BNR) grew by more than EUR 1 bln to EUR 33.6 bln in September, the inflows being twice higher than the outflows. According to BNR, the inflows totaled EUR 2.02 bln in September, representing changes in the foreign exchange reserve requirements of the credit institutions, inflows into the Ministry of Public Finances’ accounts, inflows into the European Commission’s account and incomes from the management of foreign exchange reserves. Another determining factor was the appreciation of the USD, JPY and GBP against the euro with the impact of increasing the market value of the share that the foreign reserves denominated in these three currencies have. The outflows totalled EUR 948 M, representing changes in the foreign exchange reserve requirements of the credit institutions, interest and principal payments on forex-denominated public debt.
The gold reserves remained stable at 103.7 tons, their value standing at EUR 4.016 bln at the end of the first nine months, Mediafax informs. Thus, Romania’s international reserves (forex reserves plus gold) totalled EUR 37.64 bln, in contrast to EUR 36.766 bln at the end of the previous month. In October, the payments due on public and publicly guaranteed forex-denominated debt amount to EUR 114.1 M.
The RON picked up towards 4.3150 RON/EUR at Monday’s closing, after falling slightly under 4.3 RON/EUR around 3.00 PM, as dealers suspected that the appreciation was supported by an intervention of the Central Bank. In the afternoon, exchanges were being made at 4.3140 – 4.3150 RON/EUR, about 4 Ban under Friday afternoon, when banks quoted the EUR at RON 4.3560 – 4.3590.
