NBR's foreign currency reserve up by 510m euros

The NBR’s (National Bank of Romania) foreign currency reserve reached 25.2 billion euros at the end of September, a 510 million-euro rise against the previous month. The rise occurred amid an inflow of almost 734 million euros in September. The NBR notes that the inflows represent sums resulting from the modification of the minimum reserves of commercial banks, revenues derived from the administration of the international reserve and other revenues. In fact, these are the traditional sources given by the central bank, which has ceased to publish the detailed structure of the foreign currency inflows to the reserve in 2005. “Inflows in September and July were not very high, it is only in August that the NBR clearly purchased foreign currency from the interbank market. We could say out of the 734 million-euro inflows, about 300-350 millions come from a series of interventions operated at the end of August and settled in September, as well as one operated in the first working day of September. After the August reserve figures were published, the exchange rate went up so no further NBR interventions were needed,” says Otilia Ciotau, chief economist of Piraeus Bank.