What is the currency of Romania?

The currency of Romania is the Romanian leu.

The Romanian leu is Romania’s official currency, with the international code RON. Its plural form is lei, and it is divided into 100 bani. The National Bank of Romania issues the country’s banknotes and coins. In Romanian, the word leu means “lion,” giving the currency a name shared in related form by Moldova’s leu and Bulgaria’s lev.

Romania adopted the leu in the 19th century. A major modern change came in 2005, when Romania introduced the new leu and removed four zeros from the old currency: 10,000 old lei became 1 new leu. This redenomination made prices and accounting easier to handle after long periods of inflation.

The Romanian leu is sometimes confused with the Polish zloty, Hungarian forint, or Bulgarian lev because all are currencies of Central or Eastern European countries. They are separate currencies with different codes and values. Romania is a member of the European Union but has not yet replaced the leu with the euro, so the leu remains legal tender.