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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alex who wrote (6289)	1/19/1998 4:49:00 PM
From: Ahda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116763

Alex Mickey pretty hard to run a average unless one deletes the period in which gold was at 800 as this was abnormal .

To: Alex who wrote (6289)	1/19/1998 6:08:00 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116763

SOUTH KOREA Tuesday, January 20, 1998 Gold hoards hocked for economic glitter of hope By JOHN LARKIN in SEOUL Mr Kim o-su's humble desk at a Seoul bank has become a dumping ground for a small fortune in gold jewellery in recent days as Koreans give up their heirlooms for the national good. "The Korean people are very happy to give up their gold to help the economy," says the clerk at a suburban branch of Kookmin Bank, one of South Korea's few healthy financial institutions. The citizens of once-prosperous South Korea are signing up in their droves to a campaign to amass a mountain of gold bullion to boost the nation's anaemic foreign exchange coffers. Banks, private companies and community groups are being deluged with people handing over their trinkets to help pay off Korea's huge external debts. They are paid the market rate for their gold - even more in some cases - and get the money about one month later. It is not a bad deal, as they are probably getting more buck for their carat than they would otherwise. The gold is melted down and exported, bringing crucial hard currency into the cash-starved system. So far more than $600 million has been collected, not even scratching the surface of the estimated $45 billion in gold hoarded in closets and under beds. The campaign, orchestrated in the main by two big banks, is of dubious economic worth but nevertheless gives Koreans a sense of pulling together. In the space of 15 minutes yesterday, three women entered Mr Kim's office to deposit their gold rings, necklaces and coins. The items were carefully weighed and checked for their carat value before being taken to the vault. Mr Kim estimates that about 30 people file into the bank each day. The average daily take for his branch alone is about two kilograms of gold. But not everyone is crowing about the campaign. A short way down the Itaewon tourist strip, Ms Lee Ji-young is lamenting the loss of business to her pawn shop as customers go to banks to hock their precious metal. "I still get some people wanting to pawn their jewellery but most go to the banks," she says. "They can offer more money. This is the way it is under the IMF." The International Monetary Fund has demanded harsh reforms in return for $US57 billion ($86 billion) in bailout loans to South Korea. The gold collection campaign has been described as admirable by the IMF chief, Mr Michel Camdessus, but analysts believe it is worth its weight only in symbolic terms. Tomorrow, Korean officials start talks with foreign bankers in New York to convert massive short-term debts into long-term liabilities. But for the moment the future offers more fear than hope, and this is breeding widespread resentment towards the IMF. A new category of felony dubbed "IMF crimes" has emerged as some Koreans fail to see any light at the end of the tunnel. Murders, suicides and a spate of burglaries since the IMF stepped in in December have been attributed to the despair.