This is all I could find so far. Same old stuff.
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Swiss Experts Propose Sale of Excess Gold
BERNE (Reuters) - An official panel proposed Friday selling more than half of Switzerland's gold reserves when the country cuts the Swiss franc's outdated link to gold.
Switzerland is the last country to enshrine such a link in its constitution, making the plan the latest in a series of blows to a metal that was for hundreds of years a byword for value.
The panel's recommendation to sell 1,400 metric tons of gold after amending the constitution must still be discussed by the government and would be subject to a popular referendum early next year, officials said.
Officials from the finance ministry and Swiss National Bank (SNB) said they favoured the idea in principle, but that the final details still had to be worked out.
At Friday's European market prices, selling 1,400 tons of gold would raise about $14 billion. The plan would leave 1,190 tons in the central bank's vaults in Berne.
Gold prices eased on the news, the latest psychological blow to a market pummelled by recent central bank gold sales and shunned by investors able to make a killing on stocks.
At the morning fix in London, the price of gold was set at $321.90 an ounce, down from $324.30 previously.
Finance Ministry director Ulrich Gygi, co-leader of the expert group, told a news conference such a sale would not have to drag down the market if done carefully.
"According to all the experts, there should be no significant, erratic influence on gold prices from a cautious and phased sale," he said.
But some traders disputed the idea that gold prices could escape unscathed.
"One thousand four hundred tons is practically half a year's global annual production. Sorry, but no one can tell me this is not going to disrupt the market," a Zurich trader said.
The gold sale idea is part of a broader proposal for overhauling the constitution to abolish gold backing for the Swiss franc and state more clearly the SNB's role as an independent guardian of price stability.
The group of experts from the finance ministry, central bank and Swiss universities was named in April to draft a detailed plan for the changes sought by the government and the SNB. |
