• According to seasonally adjusted data, retail sales continued to increase in February, again supported by the sales of food and non-food products.
• Money market interest rates with maturities up to one month slightly increased last week. Despite good money market liquidity, for the first time in the last six months, the central bank organised a repo operation, with two banks borrowing RON 1.2bn for two weeks at 3.50%.
• Through the three treasury securities auctions organised since the beginning of the month, the Ministry of Public Finance raised the entire amount planned of RON 1.7bn. While for the twelve-month T-bills and the three-year T-bonds the yields accepted were higher compared to previous auctions with similar maturities, in the case of nine-year T-bonds the yields were almost unchanged.
• Not following a certain trend, the EUR/RON has been traded in a range of 4.4515 – 4.4780 since the beginning of the month.
• After two quiet sessions at the beginning of the month, the EUR lost ground against the USD at the end of last week, negatively influenced by the dovish speech of the ECB President that followed the monetary policy decision.

Florentina Cozmâncă
Senior Economist
The Royal Bank of Scotland plc, Edinburgh, Romania Branch