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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (34537)	5/7/2008 5:57:43 AM
From: Rolla Coasta	Respond to of 217669

Gold Crash ---- IMF moves toward gold sales news.yahoo.com Tue May 6, 5:31 PM ET WASHINGTON (AFP) - The International Monetary Fund board of governors Tuesday approved a new program that calls for the sale of 403.3 tonnes of IMF gold reserves as part of a wide-ranging financial overhaul. The plan would create an "endowment" that helps provide a steadier source of income to the international organization that has drastically scaled back on lending. The program announced April 7 also calls for a 13.5 percent cutback in IMF spending over the next three years. The governors approved a new investment plan to be activated after gold sales. The gold sales must be approved by the US Congress to allow the US representative to the IMF to approve the change. "The new income and expenditure framework is expected to cover a 400-million-dollar shortfall projected in the medium term," the IMF said in a statement. Governors from 176 of the Fund's 185 member countries cast votes, with all in favor of the plan. Approval required a majority of the votes cast. "With this decisive endorsement, the Fund's members have once again demonstrated their support for reforming key components of the institution's framework, including its financial structure," IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. "Together with the resounding vote last week to change the representational structure of the Fund, this vote further reinforces the legitimacy of the Fund. I thank the membership for this vote of confidence in the institution's future." The new plan calling for the endowment requires an amendment of the Fund's Articles of Agreement, which will need to be accepted by at least three-fifths of IMF members. The sale, amounting to some 12 percent of its gold reserves, could yield around 11 billion dollars, IMF officials said last month. This would help finance a reorganization of the institution as it seeks to survive a downturn in lending to troubled countries, its main income source. The IMF said the plan calls for gold sales to be "conducted in a transparent manner with strong safeguards to ensure they do not add to official sales and avoid any risk of market disruption." The organization is also in the process of sharply cutting back staff. Last week it said 591 had requested voluntary buyouts, or about one in five eligible employees, well above the number expected. The institution, created over 60 years ago with a mission to foster global financial stability, is struggling to reinvent itself after many developing countries began rejecting its financial aid and accompanying restrictions.