Romanian currency weakens shortly after IMF memorandum rejection hits the press

The recent discussions about Romania's loan from the International Monetary Fund and the Romanian president's refusal to sign the recent memorandum with the IMF on account of higher excises has sent the RON – EUR exchange rate up, weakening the Romanian currency. The EUR was selling at RON 4.466 on the interbanking market on Tuesday at noon, which was a growth of 0.66 percent on the rate on Monday, and the highest rate in the last two months. In the beginning of the trading session, there was only a small number of deals, but trading significantly went up later on, also after most media outlets picked up the IMF memorandum story. The International Monetary Fund says it will wait for Romanian authorities to decide whether they want to make the needed changes to achieve the 2014 target budget deficit, after the Romanian president refused to sign the memorandum of understanding IMF. The IMF board was to discuss and approve the first evaluation of Romania’s new loan on December 18, but this will most likely be pushed back to March 2014, according to unnamed sources quoted by Romanian media. An IMF mission will be in Bucharest in January. editor@romania-insider.com