The degree of covering the net demand of foreign currency from business entities by the net supply of currency from private individuals in March represented 42.7%, as opposed to 95.7% in February. Compared with the previous month, the net supply of currency from private individuals in March ecreased by US$47.1 million (-32.7%), while the net demand from business entities rose by US$76.4 million (+50.8%), IPN reports.

The National Bank of Moldova said the imbalance between the supply and demand of foreign currency to a particular extent was due to the suspension of air traffic starting with the second half of March, which affected the currency market operators’ capacity to manage cash.

In such conditions, the NBM intervened by net sales of currency in the amount of US$109.6 million on the local interbank market.

The Moldovan leu in March depreciated by 0.5% in average values against the US dollar, to 17.7209 USD/MDL, as opposed to 17.6338 USD/MDL in February. According to the values at end-March, the leu depreciated by 2.2% against the US dollar.

In the structure of the net supply of currency from private individuals, the common European currency continued to account for the largest share (95.6%).