Euro / Romanian Leu - EUR/RON

It is after an important monetary reform when the new Romanian Leu was introduced on July 1st, 2005 (RON-on the basis 1 new Leu= 10000 old Lei).

This reform may have been conceived as a precondition to the integration of Romania to the European Union, on January 1st, 2007.

This monetary reform confirmed a disinflation movement that began at the beginning of the years 2000, while Romania had been in a hyperinflation situation in the 90s (until 300% per year in 1993).

From 2004,a “one figure” inflation had been observed, and this inflation was only at 3.8% per year in 2007.

Until now, Romania has not been able to join the ERM II (Exchange Rate Mechanism), but the new Romanian currency has been kept in a +/-15% fluctuation band in comparison with the Euro (EUR), a convergence element which is one of the main criterions of the  ERM II.

The aim for Romania is to join the Euro area, it could take place in 2014.

With the exchange value EUR/RON = 3,6009 at the beginning of July 2005, the EUR/RON cross was first increasing (so the euro appreciated a little) until January 2006 (EUR/RON = 3,6831), before the Romanian Leu appreciated by 13% regarding the initial parity until a lower of the UER/RON cross observed on the Forex at EUR/RON = 3,1254 on July 3rd, 2007.

A strong depreciation of the Leu happened during the subprime crisis, and the EUR/RON was at EUR/RON = 3,8250 by the end of January 2008.
A break of this depreciation was observed until August 2008 (EUR/RON = 3,4805),then the Romanian Leu  lost again a lot of its value against the euro in the context of the worsening  of the world financial crisis of the Fall 2008.

We had the higher of the cross EUR/RON= 4.3470 on January 20th, 2009 (+14% in a year) before the Romanian currency stabilized and re-appreciated against the Euro in 2009.

By mid-January 2010, the cross was observed at EUR/RON = 4,1292.