It just keeps getting more interesting all the time............
Bloomberg News in Bern, Switzerland:
By Theresa Waldrop and Reto Gregori Bern: A Swiss government panel said the nation's central bank should sell more than half of
its gold reserves -- 1,400 tons -- driving gold prices to 12-year lows. The panel said Switzerland no longer needs to back its currency
with gold reserves, the world's fifth largest. Gold fell 5 percent to $308.60 an ounce in New York, the lowest since March 1985. The
1,400 tons is equal to about 40 percent of annual global demand. The recommendation comes as the world's central banks shed
reserves of the precious metal in favor of better returns in bonds. Australia said in July it sold two-thirds of its gold, following earlier
sales by the Netherlands and Belgium. ''This is another nail in the coffin in the idea that gold is a key monetary asset for central
banks,'' said Kamal Naqvi, a precious metals analyst at Macquarie Equities Ltd. in London. While the Swiss government rejected the
recommendation, that did little to calm investor concerns. The government said it will sell only about 400 of its 2,590 tons in gold, as
it planned earlier, and that the sales probably will occur over the course of a decade after the year 2000. Published 15:07 |
