The Romanian currency surprisingly strengthened against the euro at the beginning of this year, by 3.5%, thus challenging analysts' expectations, who had anticipated downward pressures put on it rather than anything else, but it still lags way behind its peers in the region, the Polish zloty and the Hungarian forint. The euro is now trading in Bucharest for 4.07 RON, only 5.5% lower from the all-time peak reached in January 2009, of 4.31 RON, when everybody bet on the collapse of CEE emerging currencies. In the same four quarter of 2009, both the zloty and the forint reached all-time lows against the euro, but both currencies have gained around 20% since then. This very difference from the rebounding neighbouring currencies and the relatively high level of interest rates on the Romanian market are in fact the main reasons for the current high interest in the Romanian currency, which has constantly avoided regional corrections lately. NBR officials have showed, starting as early as last autumn, that a too strong RON increase is not desirable as it may again hurt exports, the only engine now working towards an economic rebound.
The Romanian currency surprisingly strengthened against the euro at the beginning of this year, by 3.5%, thus challenging analysts' expectations, who had anticipated downward pressures put on it rather than anything else, but it still lags way behind its peers in the region, the Polish zloty and the Hungarian forint. The euro is now trading in Bucharest for 4.07 RON, only 5.5% lower from the all-time peak reached in January 2009, of 4.31 RON, when everybody bet on the collapse of CEE emerging currencies. In the same four quarter of 2009, both the zloty and the forint reached all-time lows against the euro, but both currencies have gained around 20% since then. This very difference from the rebounding neighbouring currencies and the rel