NBR absorbs more RON in August

The NBR (National Bank of Romania) attracted deposits from banks worth 5.8 billion RON (1.8 billion euros) in August. Therefore, the volume of sums attracted by the NBR from commercial banks was up 19% against July. In fact, in July, the sums purged by the NBR reached a two-year low. For example, in January 2007, the NBR had almost 11 billion RON in deposits attracted from commercial banks, while in June, the central bank still had almost 7.3 billion RON. The NBR is purging excess RON from the monetary market by attracting deposits (since July, the due date of these instruments has been reduced from one month to two weeks) and by selling securities with a three-month maturity. In August, the NBR reached a volume of 4.9 billion-RON deposits (17% more than in July), while the volume of securities slightly climbed, to 880 million RON. The NBR also lent sums to the commercial banks, in order to cover liquidity shortages. In July, the volume of repo contracts (loans granted to commercial banks, guaranteed with securities) stood at 827 million RON, and dropped to 112 million RON in August.