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To: Alex who wrote (23681)	12/1/1998 5:27:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116756

Full story INTERVIEW-Asian economies hunger for gold 06:43 a.m. Dec 01, 1998 Eastern By Hari Ramachandran NEW DELHI, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Demand for gold in the crisis-racked Asian economies is reviving, a senior World Gold Council (WGC) official said on Tuesday. ''There is evidence that the demand is now coming back to Southeast Asia,'' Dick Ware of the WGC's Centre for Public Policy Studies told Reuters. ''Their economies are starting to mend again and given the propensity of demand for gold in these countries -- and it was proved that they could use it last year -- I expect demand to grow again,'' Ware said on the fringes of a conference organised by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF). Ware said when the Asian crisis struck last year those who owned gold were fortunate. Koreans and Thais sold gold, finding it to be an asset when currencies were collapsing. ''What you see in the current quarter, and I expect that to continue, is repurchasing of gold,'' Ware said. ''People used their gold last year and early this year when they were in distress. They have seen how valuable it is and now want to rebuild their stocks.'' Referring to gold demand in Japan, Ware said the council saw the country as a mature market that was unlikely to see any significant changes. Gold demand in China, which was still a controlled economy, was increasing in the short term but he did say by how much. ''But it has to be on a rising trend.'' China's gold industry was going through a progressive deregulation and the government had dramatically modified pricing arrangements. He said China would deregulate the industry over the long run and per capita consumption would grow. ''India last year consumed about 740 tonnes of gold, China consumed 220 tonnes of gold. If the Chinese consume gold at the Indian rate, then you are talking of additional demand of five, six or seven hundred tonnes for the long term.'' Consumption in India had been increasing. ''Last year was a dramatic increase, clearly it has a lot to do with government's deregulation,'' Ware said. India, which imports almost all its gold, strengthened its position as the world's largest consuming country in 1997 with demand surging 45 percent to an all-time high of 737 tonnes, WGC data shows. Gold offtake in India in the first three quarters of 1998 had been 19 percent higher than in the same 1997 period. India eased bullion import rules last year, allowing a cluster of banks to import and sell gold in the local market in addition to the few state-run agencies. The move led to a surge in official gold imports. Ware said the government should liberalise the rules further by removing restrictions on gold imports. ''Why restrict it, allow any bank, any agency or private individual to import as much gold as he wants to.'' Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.