The Moldovan leu showed resistance to overlapping shocks, such as the pandemic, the war, the inflation, the cost of energy and food. This is the result of the work done by the National Bank of Moldova (MBM), of the adequate reserves. The institution is ready to intervene in the market when need be, said the head of the Bank’s Financial Markets Department Daniel Savin. According to him, the exchange rate will fluctuate according to the market tendencies. However, if the forecasts about the economic growth and inflation within the corridor come true, there are no risks the exchange rate will evolve with increased volatility. This will stabilize and will create preconditions for development, IPN reports.

“The official exchange rate is actually the mirror of the market. We have an official exchange rate that reflects the real rate of the market. So, in the regulations existing at the National Bank, we can see that in fact, by cumulating the market information about the real transactions performed by banks, according to a particular procedure, we calculate the official exchange rate. We now do this against the U.S. dollar. So, we take into account the transactions performed by banks by now. We have two markets here: the market of banks with clients and the market of banks between them, or the interbank one. All these operations are reported to the National Bank and we calculate the weighted average exchange rate,” Daniel Savin stated in the NBM’s podcast “Give Sense to Money”.

According to him, the most used currency or one of the most used currencies is usually chosen. The exchange rate of the national currency against this currency is calculated and the rates from the international markets are then applied to the given rate and the rate is calculated, in the case of Moldova of the lei against other currencies, multiplying the leu-dollar rate towards other currencies.

When they visit the NBM’s website to see the set exchange rate, the citizens should know that the rate posted there is the rate the licensed banks use in the relations with their clients that day, more exactly the previous day. The rates published by the central bank are informative rates used for accounting purposes and they are not a benchmark for real transactions.

Daniel Savin also spoke about the causes that lead to the appreciation or deprecation of the leu. “The foreign currency is like a merchandise and it has a price. Both the buyers and the sellers influence the price of this merchandise. When the demand for currencies is higher, which is there are more buyers, we try to understand what factors influence the demand up,” stated the head of the Financial Markets Department.

“We are satisfied that the instruments applied by the National Bank enabled us not to allow excessive fluctuations in the exchange rate and the level of reserves possessed by the National Bank showed that it is adequate and can help us in crisis situations, especially within currency or exchange operations.”