Romania’s forex reserves up in March, on FX bond issues partly offset by forex market intervention

The foreign exchange reserves at Romania’s central bank stood at EUR 67 billion at the end of March 2026, up from EUR 65 billion one month earlier, according to data from the National Bank of Romania BNR.

The EUR 2 billion net increase, in the context of EUR 3 billion and USD 1.73 billion inflows generated by FX bond issues and only EUR 638 million service of the public debt, indicates other operations with a net outflow result of EUR 1.86 billion.

In the absence of a change in the required reserve ratios, and based on prior reports by ING Romania, Profit.ro concluded the central bank’s interventions on the foreign exchange market in support of the local currency. The analysis does not include, however, changes in the Finance Ministry’s foreign currency account at the central bank (where it holds the disbursements from the European Union under the RRF and MFF, before distributing the money to ministries for the financing of specific projects).

Banking analysts pointed out last month that the RON was under pressure, like other currencies in the region, amid risk aversion generated by the war in the Middle East and the energy crisis it induced. Unlike other currencies, the RON remained almost unchanged, while the Hungarian forint, for example, had daily variations of several percentage points.

According to ING, the BNR had "significant" interventions on the exchange rate.

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