The Romanian currency recorded its lowest historical level on Friday and Thursday, when the euro reached 4.9416 lei and 4.9386 lei, respectively. The Romanian leu also saw slight weakness on Monday against the dollar and the Swiss franc.
Romanian Prime Minister Florin Seto, who has experience as a banking analyst, on Friday denied that the exchange rate of the Romanian currency will fall due to the local political crisis, saying that the Romanian currency is one of the most stable in the region. He believed that the process of weakening the Lei regime had already begun before the government crisis that erupted on Wednesday.
At the time, there was a dispute between the National Liberal Party (PNL), the main force of the Romanian government, and the central coalition partner, USR PLUS, over the national development programme. Citu has replaced Attorney General Stelian Ion, representing USR PLUS in the government, whom Citu has accused of obstructing the program’s adoption, so USR PLUS wants to leave the coalition if the Liberals refuse to replace Citu. There is currently an impasse, the parties can not reach an agreement.
In Romania, the population is sensitive to the weakness of the lei, because communication services and rents are quoted in euros and their value is converted into lei based on the exchange rate of the European currency.
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