Boc: The works on the metropolitan belt will start in a few months. Piecemeal expropriations. Now only 4 million euros are needed Boc: The work on the metropolitan belt starts in a few months. Piecemeal expropriations. Now only 4 million euros are needed

The first meeting in April was a calm one, given that a good part of the international financial market was closed, on the occasion of the celebration of Easter by the Catholics.

In the middle of this week, the monetary policy meeting of the NBR will take place. Analysts do not anticipate a first cut to the benchmark rate, which stands at 7% from January 2023.

ROBOR indices approach 6%

However, the ROBOR indices are getting closer and closer to the 6% threshold, which represents the value with which the BNR remunerates the money deposited by commercial banks in its accounts.

On Monday, the three-month ROBOR index, based on which interest is calculated on most loans in lei contracted before May 2019, returned from 6.06 to 6.05%.

The 6-month index, used to calculate mortgage rates, decreased from 6.08 to 6.07% and the 12-month index consolidated to 6.08%.

The euro rate has increased

The euro rate increased from 4.9695 to 4.97 lei, while the transactions were carried out in the corridor 4.968 – 4.971 lei, close to those of the last weeks.

The stability of the leu, the main tool used by the central bank to reduce inflation, is due to the comfortable level of the foreign exchange reserve which is at a record level.

The Treasury wants to borrow 6.8 billion lei

At the end of last month, international reserves (currency plus gold) stood at 71.1 billion euros, and those in foreign currency rose to 64.2 billion euros.

The state treasury intends to borrow almost 6.8 billion lei this month. The first step was taken this Monday, when Finance borrowed a total of 1.93 billion lei through two auctions.

At the first, the amount drawn due in October 2024 was 917.4 million lei, at an average yield of 6.01%. In the second, 1.02 billion lei were lent at an average annual yield of 6.37%.

The statement made by Jerome Powell, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, at the end of last week, according to which “if our base scenario does not come true (inflation returning to 2%, ed.), we will keep rates at their current level for more time”, did not change the perception in the market. Investors expect the Fed to cut the benchmark rate in three steps, from 5.25-5.50% to 4.50-4.75%.

Gold, a new historical record

The euro traded in the 1.0783-1.0799 dollar corridor and the average of the American currency decreased marginally from 4.6078 to 4.6047 lei.

The average of the Swiss franc stagnated at the value of 5.1124 lei on the last day of March. The exchange rate of the pound sterling increased marginally to 5.8152 lei.

Despite the fact that the London market was closed, the yellow metal reached a new all-time high of $2,265.73/ounce, which lifted the price of a gram of gold from 330.7911 lei to a new record of 333.3834 lei, the increase from from the beginning of the year being over 11%.

Bitcoin fell to $69,015 – $71,302 and ethereum to $3,505 – $3,647.

Data and information available up to Monday at 14:00 are used.