Eugen Radulescu (BNR) : Foreign exchange market

The foreign exchange market "caught fire" before the second round of the presidential elections, and Romania lost eight billion euros of its foreign exchange reserves in two days, through interventions aimed at calming the extremely strong depreciation, Eugen Radulescu, advisor to the BNR governor, said on Thursday at a specialized debate."I can say what happened to the foreign exchange market in the days before the second round of the presidential elections, when the foreign exchange market 'caught fire'. We lost eight billion euros from the reserve in two days, through interventions to calm the depreciation that was extremely strong. (...) The reason for which it had reached that point disappeared and then, in the following two months, we managed to buy back the money we gave, without moving the exchange rate who knows what. And that was a good thing", said Eugen Radulescu, specifying that he was speaking on his own behalf and did not imply the position of the Central Bank.According to him, financial markets always react to the slightest external signal."Markets are sensitive, they react to the slightest signal. To any small earthquake that we don't feel, the markets react, feel it and mark it in the price," the financier explained.He gave as an example the reaction of the financial markets to the rejection of the appeal regarding the pensions of magistrates."When it was announced that the Constitutional Court had rejected the appeal regarding magistrates' pensions, the markets reacted immediately, improving the interest rates paid by Romania," said Radulescu.He mentioned that it is only a matter of a few thousand special pensions for magistrates and that the signal sent matters a lot."We are talking about 8-9,000 pensions. That's about how many special pensions magistrates receive. At a macroeconomic level, the amount is nonexistent, but it counts as a signal. If we continue on the same path, we will certainly have the best results," Eugen Radulescu believes.He admitted, however, that there is also the danger of a change in attitude in current politics."We also have the other side of the coin. If we turn around and come to the conclusion that it would be better with another majority, at the current level of public debt and deficit (budget - editor's note), such an adventure would bury us," concluded Eugen Radulescu.Oxygen Events organized, on Thursday, at the BNR Arena, the conference "Romania de facto: realities and perspectives 2026".According to the organizers, the event is aimed at professionals interested in economic analysis, decision-making processes and how Romania positions itself in a changing European and global context.