The European currency yesterday reached this year's highest level, after passing the threshold of 4.36 lei last week. The Romanian National Bank (NBR) yesterday displayed a reference rate of 4.3620 lei/Euro, up 0.95 bani compared to the previous session.
The last time a higher Euro/leu was higher than this Friday was in June 2010, when it reached 4.3688 lei/Euro.
On the currency market, the Euro opened at 4.3560 lei and climbed to the maximum level of 4.3680 lei. The European currency concluded Friday's session on 4.3639 lei, up 0.17% over the previous day.
While, as reflected by the interbank market and by the exchange rate of the NBR, the Euro currency strengthened against the leu, on the international markets the Euro lost ground against the American dollar. The Euro/dollar exchange rate reached 1.3239 units on Friday, down 0.81% compared to the previous session.
Of all the currencies in the region, on Friday the Hungarian forint had the biggest depreciation (0.68%), all the way to the level of 314.35 forint/Euro. The depreciation came on the back of the announcement made by ratings firm "Moody's", which cut the rating of Hungarian bonds to "Ba1" from "Baa3" ("junk", which means it is not recommended to investors).
The Polish zloty also fell 1% on Friday, as the euro/zloty exchange rate reached 4.5426.
At the exchange rate of the NBR, the Euro was not the only currency to gain against the leu, but so did the American dollar and the Swiss Franc. On Friday, the NBR displayed an official exchange rate of 3.2926 lei/dollar, up 3.78 over the previous day. The last time the exchange rate was above this level was in January, when the Central Bank announced an exchange rate of 3.2934 lei/dollar.
The reference exchange rate for the Swiss Franc reached 3.5554 lei on Friday, up 1.29 bani over the previous session.
* Credit De
