Dealers had a strong start to the year: January transactions at a two-year peak

The interest stirred by FP floatation among foreign investors and the rising appetite for Romanian T-bills in January drove transactions carried out on the Bucharest forex market to 38bn euros, a two-year high.

Whereas trading peaks were traditionally registered during periods of volatility, when banks traded more amongst themselves, this time the increase came from transactions with clients.
The previous trading peaks were registered in June 2010, 37bn euros, and January 2009, 40bn euros, when the leu went through periods of abrupt depreciation. This January, though, the euro fluctuated within a very narrow band, around the level of 4.25 lei.
Foreign currency purchases and sales banks carried out with clients climbed to almost 1.5bn euros as daily average, the highest level registered since October 2008, when the absolute trading record was hit amid the speculative attack against the leu. Instead, interbank operations stood at just 314m euros as daily average, below the 2010 average.
However, dealers say it was financial deals that gave this boost and there is no question, yet, of rising volumes traded by commercial clients, which would show a rebound of the real sector.