BUCHAREST -- Romania's Bucharest-based commodities exchange will become the first exchange in Eastern Europe to offer hard-currency transactions, an official said.


"This will certainly boost our turnover," said exchange executive manager Mircea Filipoiu. He said the exchange had obtained central bank approval for hard-currency deals, which it would launch in September.


"Though this instrument comes at a time when the leu currency is stable, it will certainly boost our trading as confidence in hard currency is bigger than in the leu," Filipoiu said. The leu has traded at an official rate of 1,683 to the dollar throughout this week.


Trading on the exchange in the first six months of this year was 7 billion lei ($4.16 million), four times bigger than in the equivalent period of 1993, but most of it came from deals struck in the early months of 1994.