Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: bobby beara who wrote (11929)	5/19/1998 9:48:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116830

Crisis-hit Asia ships scrap gold to Switzerland 11:00 a.m. May 19, 1998 Eastern ZURICH, May 19 (Reuters) - Scrap gold is pouring into Switzerland from crisis-hit Asian countries eager to help shore up their shaky state finances by collecting precious metals and jewellery from citizens, official data showed on Tuesday. Swiss customs data for April showed an overall trade deficit of 1.17 billion Swiss francs ($788.3 million) in the first four months of the year. Excluding precious metals and stones, works of art and antiques, Switzerland posted a 454.2 million franc surplus in the period. The wider overall deficit ''stemmed substantially from a massive rise in imports of precious metals, jewels and gems from emerging-market countries in Asia,'' the Federal Customs Office said. A customs office spokesman declined to reveal details, citing regulations that block publishing data about flows of monetary gold into and out of Switzerland. ''But it is actually so that precious metals were imported from this area and...this is often to be melted down,'' he said. Much of the scrap gold and granulate that comes to Switzerland is headed for the country's refineries, where it can be melted down into gold bars and re-exported. South Korea, for instance, collected 243 tonnes of gold from citizens by early March to help raise foreign currency for the cash-strapped country rocked by the region's financial crisis. It exported at least 228 tonnes gathered in the campaigns to help fill up foreign-exchange reserves, but figures about the flow to Switzerland were not immediately available. ($ - 1.484 Swiss Francs) Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.