I don't know if you have noticed, but I have seen around me lately, more and more often, how grandparents, uncles, aunts, parents, relatives give their grandchildren, children, on their birthday, at Christmas, at Easter, at New Year's, every time I see them, euros, so that they have, as they say in our country. Dollars less, but also dollars. In our tradition (I don't know how it is in other nations) money is given to children, grandchildren, the youngest, but lately what I have noticed is that the money is more euros and less lei. It seems that the euro is now perceived as a much more solid asset, more appreciated than the lei and that it is instinctively a more hoardable asset than the lei. Lei are spent much faster, instead of euro cash, in banknotes, they are put and kept aside, either in the hope of increasing the value (one of the most frequently heard questions is: what should I keep the money in, in lei or in euros?), or for harder times, of crisis, or to be used abroad, on trips, in the purchase of products and services from outside. The euro/leu exchange rate has been incredibly stable in the last decade, which has contributed to a certain positive perception about Romania's economic evolution, about the increase in purchasing power, about a certain economic and even political stability. The stability of the leu/euro exchange rate is the first objective that the National Bank has and defends, being even a personal objective of Governor Mugur Isărescu. Both at the beginning of the Covid period, then at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, when Russia attacked Kiev in February 2022, and especially in May 2025, after the first round of the presidential elections, when George Simion came out detached, with a different rhetoric, the BNR immediately intervened with all the force and with all the foreign exchange resources held to ensure the stability of the exchange rate and not allow any slippage. In May, in the first days after the stunning result of the first round of the presidential elections, the National Bank sold more than 8 billion euros of the foreign exchange reserve in order to control the increase of the rate by 2-3 percent and not allow a higher increase that the financial market and even the public expected, considering what was announced to follow. In May, those who entered the crisis and changed their lei into euros were rather Romanians, both retail people and especially Romanians with money, for fear that a crisis could follow with the coming to power of George Simion and AUR. But the result of the vote in the second round, with the victory of Nicusor Dan, i.e. of the pro-European pole, calmed the market, the exchange rate stabilized, and the BNR is now buying euros in order not to let the exchange rate fall below 5 lei/euro. The international reserve of the BNR, in foreign currency and in gold, reached a historical maximum at the end of November. However, at the ordinary level, the euro is perceived as a gift and a better asset to hoard, to keep at home, than lei. In the eyes of children, grandchildren, relatives, euros give a better gift than lei. But beyond this, it seems to me that the famous expression What do Romanians do when they have no money? Exchange the dollars or euros they have! it is extremely current. I don't know what the general perception is, if 2025 was really such a bad year, as we think or as we talked about, but still we arrived at the port, we close the year well, without any political, financial, social crisis, and the grandparents, the parents took out of the closets, laundry, euros, to give to the children/grandchildren, so that they also have something there. Let's be healthy and see each other again in 2026, when we hope it will be a better year! Happy birthday!
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