EC loan tranche strengthens NBR reserve

NBR’s foreign currency reserve added almost 700m euros in March after the 1.4bn-euro tranche from the loan the state contracted from the European Commission was disbursed, thus climbing to 32.76bn euros, close to the all-time peak reached last November.

In February, the reserve had shrunk by 621m euros, with the analysts accounting for the decline by the NBR’s alleged interventions on the interbank foreign currency market meant to prop the leu. In March, the scenario was different, though.

“According to our calculations, the major outflows were determined by the revaluation of dollar and pound components, which depreciated against the euro. If the NBR sold foreign currency, the sums were small ones,” says Nicolaie Alexandru-Chide[ciuc, a chief-economist with ING Bank.

For April, the NBR indicates scheduled payments worth 128m euros on foreign public debt. At the same time, the impact of NBR’s late March decision of cut minimum foreign-currency reserves by 5%, to 20%, will also be seen in April.