Foreign reserve on the rise

The foreign currency reserve managed by the National Bank of Romania (NBR) saw continued growth in September, increasing by a further 414.3 million euros to a total of more than 9.7bn euros. The large volumes of foreign currency bought on the interbank market remained the main drive behind the growth in the foreign reserve, exceeding half a billion euros last month. NBR bought a net total of about 2.8bn euros; however, these interventions did not lead to significant increases in the ROL/EUR exchange rate. NBR said the reserve accumulated in September also included a short-term deposit of 81.8 million euros, but did not provide any details as to the source or status of this deposit. Meanwhile, Foreign reserve management operations yielded nearly 17 million euros. Besides the above-mentioned inflows, the foreign currency reserve also experienced some outflows, following payments of 92.3 million euros in instalments and interest payments for the direct public foreign debt secured by the Finance Ministry. ZF