The appreciation of the American currency and the yellow metal at $2,192 – $2,214, close to the historical high of $2,222.39, reached on March 21, lifted the price of a gram of gold from the record of 323.4240 lei, reached on Wednesday, to 327.8351 lei.
Compared to the beginning of the year, the price of a gram of gold increased by 27 lei, an evolution due to the appreciation of the ounce of gold which increased after the officials of the American Federal Reserve hinted that they are ready to reduce the reference rate by 0.75% to end of the year, through three cutting operations, from 5.25 – 5.50% to 4.50 – 4.75%. At the same time, maintaining a high level of inflation and the tense geopolitical situation worldwide forced central banks to buy gold.
Sales of assets considered risky, such as the euro and currencies on the periphery of the zone, caused depreciations.
The rate of the single currency increased on Thursday from 4.9710 to 4.9730 lei and market quotations rose to 4.972 – 4.974 lei.
The ROBOR indices remain close to the deposit facility rate of the NBR, which is 65
On Thursday, the three-month ROBOR index, based on which interest is calculated on most loans in lei contracted before May 2019, stagnated at 6.05%, the same value as that recorded on June 6, 2022. The 6-month index, used when calculating mortgage rates, it consolidated to 6.08% and the 12-month rate decreased from 6.09 to 6.08%, values comparable to those of May 2022.
For its part, the Treasury borrows close to the value of 6%. It attracted 1.06 billion lei on Thursday, through an auction due in October 2026, above the scheduled value of 500 million lei. The average return paid by the state is 6.13%/year, given that the NBR forecasts the return of inflation to the target corridor of 2.5±1 percentage point.
High interest rates stimulate foreign demand for Romanian government bonds, this being one of the main causes of the stability of the leu. At the end of last year, non-residents owned 26.7% of government bonds, with inflows for the whole of last year being almost 34 billion lei.
The assertion of a Fed official according to which there is no pressure to cut interest rates in the US appreciated the American currency, whose rate rose from 4.5892 to 4.6085 lei. On the international markets, the euro depreciated to 1.0775 – 1.0828 dollars.
The euro also lost ground against the Swiss franc and the pound sterling, and their average rose to 5.0914 lei and 5.8167 lei, respectively.
In the region, the average of the Hungarian currency depreciated to 395.83 forints/euro and the Polish one to 4.3191 zlotys/euro.
Bitcoin traded in the $68,914 – $70,912 corridor and ethereum fluctuated between $3,466 and $3,592.
Data and information available up to 14:00 are used
