The Stock Exchange has lost 3.7 billion euros over the last three weeks, whilst the RON has depreciated by approximately 2.2% since the onset of American financial market crisis.

The negative news coming from the foreign markets over the last month prompted a severe correction at the Stock Exchange, despite the fact that the most important Romanian companies listed on the BSE reported very good results in the first half of the year. On the forex market, the RON saw a major depreciation against the euro, with interests for short-term deposits experiencing a significant increase. If international markets do not rally quickly, funding institutions could make credits more costly and ask for additional guarantees from those requesting loans.

The problems on the foreign financial markets have continued to deepen over the last week as, in addition to the crisis of risky mortgage credits on the American market, a new crisis emerged - low liquidities in the financial system. This prompted central banks in the USA, Europe and Asia to pump over 150 billion euros into the market, in order to avoid a liquidity crisis that could paralyse the financial markets. The European capital markets experienced a severe blow, with banks' stocks being the hardest hit. The American market is itself continuing its correction, although the intervention of the American central bank, the Fed, has somewhat relaxed investors. This generalised correction of the international markets is also prompted by the big investment funds, which are exiting from riskier instruments in order to be protected against the high volatility of the market.

"The capital markets are experiencing a period during which the appetite for risk has declined, and investors on the stock markets are exiting in order to be protected against large price fluctuations. This is a normal correction, coming after th