OREANDA-NEWS. August 09, 2012. The depreciation of the Moldovan lei against the US dollar and the euro on the last period is a reaction of the currency market to the situation in the region, no matter the reasons which trigger this, Governor of the National Bank of Moldova (BNM) Dorin Dragutanu told a news conference on the launch of an inflation report.

"We cannot disconnect us from certain factors that dictate the currency market from the region. The conditions in an economy, which is important for our foreign trade, directly affect us too," the governor noted.

Dragutanu emphasized that the Russian rouble had depreciated by 16.7 per cent against the US dollars over the past 12 months, the Romanian leu lost 8.5 per cent against the dollar and the euro depreciated by 13.9 per cent against the dollar. "The circumstances are such that the depreciation of the currencies of our main foreign trade partners cannot but cause a need of a certain correction on Moldova's currency market," the governor said. As a result, the leu has depreciated by ten per cent against the dollar over the past 12 months.

"It depreciated against the exchange rate recorded one year ago, respectively 11.40 lei, which was probably too low and unsustainable," Dragutanu stressed. The governor thinks that this evolution is absolutely normal and that things have stabilized.

The governor rejected statements, according to which the BNM would have intervened on the market via purchases of currency at higher quotations than the market ones, which led to depreciation. The National Bank intervened on the market in last May via buying 20.3 million dollars, and in June - 31.5 million at exchange rates "very close to the rates on markets."

BNM's data shows that the official exchange rate developed from 11.7154 lei for one dollar on 1 January up to 12.5434 lei on 2 August. The leu's depreciation favours the exporters and creates problems for importers, Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Valeriu Lazar has earlier said. The Moldovan leu's depreciation against the dollar also depends on the quotations on international markets, and the fall of the euro makes problems to us, Lazar added.