IMF Gold Sell

Just for the record, someone needs to track these guys.


Japan's Omi Recommends IMF Sell Gold Reserves

Japan's finance minister said Saturday he had proposed to the International Monetary Fund's policy-steering body that the fund sell its gold reserves to cover its falling income.

"Japan has told (the committee): 'Why not sell gold?'" Finance Minister Koji Omi told reporters after attending the International Monetary and Financial Committee's spring meeting in Washington.

Omi's proposal is in line with Japan's long-held stance as well as recommendations made earlier this year by a high-level panel at the IMF. In late January, the panel, chaired by Andrew Crockett, president of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), urged the fund to sell some of its vast gold reserves and invest the proceeds to raise income.

The fund currently is unable to earn enough revenue to cover its operating costs because of its shrinking loan portfolio. Countries such as Brazil, the Philippines and Uruguay have paid off loans from the fund ahead of schedule, reducing interest payments to the international lender, while fewer nations are seeking the fund's financial support.

Commodities traders have been closely watching the IMF's handling of gold. The fund is the third-largest holder of gold reserves in the world, after the U.S. and German central banks. As of late last year, the IMF said it held 103.4 million ounces of gold. -source

Gold Market News Summery

Dear readers,

It was a busy month! , Posted below are some of the latest international gold market news:

IMF to make central bank gold lending data more transparent

Blanchard & Company study calling for greater transparency in central bank gold lending accounting has apparently helped to convince the International Monetary Fund to adopt a landmark accounting change in the way central banks account for gold loans.

http://www.mineweb.net/american_notes/596209.htm


IMF advised to sell 400 tonnes of gold


http://www.imf.org/external/np/tr/2007/tr070131.htm

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Business_News&subsection=market+news&month=February2007&file=Business_News2007020293025.xml

Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Secretary) Gordon Brown was accused in the House of Commons Thursday of losing the equivalent of over 4.5 billion dollars by selling gold assets when prices were low.


http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=945883

Euro bank breaks rank, buys gold?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/euro-bank-breaks-rank-buys-gold/2007/01/03/1167777153474.html



New gold products…

World Gold Council may offer new funds in Europe and India

http://www.bbj.hu/main/news_21208_world%2Bgold%2Bcouncil%2Bmay%2Boffer%2Bnew%2Bfunds%2Bin%2Beurope%2Band%2Bindia.html

Amfi expects launch of gold ETFs in Feb

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Markets/Commodities/Amfi_expects_launch_of_gold_ETFs_in_Feb/articleshow/1144457.cms


NCDEX to launch 10 gm gold contract

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Markets/Commodities/NCDEX_to_launch_10_gm_gold_contract/articleshow/1011695.cms

Gold Market News

COMEX Metal Futures on the CME Globex Platform

New York, N.Y., November 21, 2006 -- The New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. announced today that it will expand COMEX metals electronic trading to include side by side trading, COMEX miNYs, Asian metals, and London metals futures contracts on the CME Globex® electronic trading platform beginning on December 3 for trade date December 4.

NYMEX will migrate the COMEX gold, silver, copper and aluminum futures contracts, which currently trade after hours on the NYMEX ACCESS® electronic trading system to CME Globex. These contracts will also be offered on CME Globex during open outcry hours, trading virtually 24 hours a day. -source


Related - * CME and C(BOT) to Merge


NCDEX opens futures contracts for gold and silver

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21
MUMBAI: National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) launched two new precious metal futures contracts on Tuesday aimed at retail investors, an exchange official said.

The new products, a 100-gram gold contract and a five-kg silver contract, join several heavier denomination contracts for the two metals on NCDEX. "This is aimed at retail investors, since every household in India feels the need to invest in precious metals," said, Narendra Gupta, chief of strategy.

Both products would have contracts for every month with the expiry set for the 20th of the delivery month. -source

IMF Should Sell Gold to Cover Looming Losses, Directors Say

By Christopher Swann

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The International Monetary Fund, the world's third-largest owner of gold, should sell some of its hoard to cover projected operating losses, say a growing number of the fund's executive directors.

The Washington-based lender predicts it will lose $87.5 million next year and $280 million in 2009. Some directors say the fund should sell a portion of its 103 million ounces of gold, valued at $64.7 billion, and invest the proceeds in interest- bearing assets.

``We would support the use of fund gold as part of the solution to IMF financial needs,'' Tuomas Saarenheimo of Finland, chairman of a group that coordinates the position of European Union members on the fund's 24-person board, said in an interview in Washington... -source

Gold is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Au (L. aurum) and atomic number 79. A soft, shiny, yellow, dense, malleable, ductile (trivalent and univalent) transition metal, gold does not react with most chemicals but is attacked by chlorine, fluorine and aqua regia. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks and in alluvial deposits and is one of the coinage metals.
For millennia, gold has served as money and is also used in jewelry, dentistry, and in electronics. Gold forms the basis for a monetary standard used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Its ISO currency code is XAU.

here is what the IMF have to say about gold :

• The IMF's policy on gold is governed by the following principles:
  As an undervalued asset held by the IMF, gold provides fundamental strength to its balance sheet. Any mobilization of IMF gold should avoid weakening its overall financial position.
  
• The IMF should continue to hold a relatively large amount of gold among its assets, not only for prudential reasons, but also to meet unforeseen contingencies.
  
• The IMF has a systemic responsibility to avoid causing disruptions to the functioning of the gold market.
  

35 years price history of gold (Courtesy of bigcharts.com)

more later, real1.