BUCHAREST (Romania), August 21 (SeeNews) - The Romanian leu firmed on Tuesday after the country’s top court said the referendum on the impeachment of suspended President Traian Basescu was invalid, dealers said.
The court ruled 6-3 that the turnout in the referendum was below the required minimum of more than half of all eligible voters. Voter turnout at the July 29 referendum was 46.24%.
The leu closed at 4.4800/4830 per euro compared to 4.4980/4990 per euro on Monday.
The currency opened at 4.4930/4960 and eased to an intraday low of 4.5050 per euro but the court ruling gave it a boost to an intraday high of 4.4750, a local dealer told SeeNews.
The court's decision opens the way for the suspended president to return to office but analysts believe the political tensions between the president, connected to opposition centre-right Democratic Liberal Party, PDL, and the governing left-wing Social Liberal Union, USL, will run high.
"On the very-short term we expect the intensity of political tensions to diminish, but only to return to levels witnessed before the vote for the suspension of the president on July 6," Raiffeisen Research said in a note. It expects political noise to persist at least until the parliamentary elections in November.
"Local politics, together with high risk aversion on the external markets and low inflows of foreign capital would continue probably to put pressure on the Romanian leu and bond yields," Raiffeisen Research said.
Romania's central bank, BNR, set its reference exchange rate at 4.4987 lei per euro on Tuesday compared to 4.4939 lei on Monday. For the U.S. dollar, BNR set the reference exchange rate at 3.6255 lei versus 3.6404 on Monday.
Turnover on the Romanian interbank leu deposit market fell to 1.8 billion lei on Monday from 2.2 billion lei on Friday. The central bank will issue Tuesday's turnover figure on Wednesday.
Interest rates on overnight leu deposits grew to 3.54%/4.04% on Tuesday from 4.85%/5.35% on Monday.