During three weeks of panic, since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Moldovans bought at least US$90 million in different currencies and paid minimum 30 million lei extra as higher profit margin. In other words, the currency exchange facilities fully profited from the panic and earned super profit, said the economist of the Institute for Development and Special Initiatives “Viitorul” Veaceslav Ioniță, IPN reports.

“Usually, the currency exchange facilities have a profit margin of 9 lei per US$100 and 11 lei per €100. In other words, they earn 9 to 11 lei per full transaction to sell and buy US$100 or €100. During the panic period, the currency exchange facilities increase a lot the sale rate of the currency and leave the purchase rate at a very low level. This fuels panic further. If the difference between the sale and purchase rate for US$100 or €100 is higher than 20 lei, someone definitely gains at the client’s expense,” said the expert.

According to the economist, the profit margin on the euro during the second week of war rose to 89 lei/€100, which is eight times or by 78 lei more than the ordinary margin. A record high was hit during the first days of March, when the margin exceeded 100 lei per €100.

“Ordinarily, the Moldovans weekly sell by US$75 million in the form of euros, dollars or other currencies and purchase US$30 million in different currencies. We intuit that during the panic period, the volume of transactions is much higher,” stated Veaceslav Ioniță.

The National Bank of Moldova has sufficient foreign exchange reserves to intervene in the currency market if need be. Therefore, any panic does not have economic substantiation. The National Bank of Moldova’s foreign exchange reserves now total US$3.6 billion.