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Iran's holdings are likely another big omission in official gold data
No Need for Gold Imports for a Decade, Iran Says
From Mehr News Agency, Tehran, Iran
Saturday, October 30, 2010
http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=1181508
TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran has changed some 15 percent of its foreign exchange reserve into gold stockpiles and there is no need for gold imports for the next 10 years, Central Bank governor Mahmoud Bahmani said here on Saturday.
Bahmani made the remarks at a national conference on development of the banking system.
He also said that the country's foreign currency reserve has gained several billion dollars as a result of the rise in global gold prices.
Bahmani said on October 23 that according to World Bank statistics Iran has $100 billion in foreign exchange reserves.
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Provided that the World Bank statistics are true, any country with this amount of reserves would never hit a dead end, the ISNA news agency quoted Bahmani as saying.
It may be possible to exert pressure on a small country with $4 billion or $5 billion in reserves, but the situation in regard to Iran is different, he said in a reference to efforts by Western countries pressure Iran financially.
He pointed to Iran's gold reserves and said they had multiplied several times in the past two years.
Bahmani went on to say that currently gold consumption in the country is 30 tons per year and if the central bank doesn't add to its gold reserves there will remain ample supplies for the next 10 years.
In August, Bahmani said that Tehran had withdrawn the assets held by its banks in Europe to counter new financial sanctions imposed on the country over its nuclear program.
"The central bank has transferred bank assets from Europe. Currently there is no problem in regard to blocking of assets of the Iranian banks by the European Union," Bahmani added.
The preemptive measure was a precautionary response to a potential European decision to freeze Iranian assets, he remarked.
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From ZeroHedge.com
Sunday, October 31, 2010
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/iran-announces-it-has-converted-15-its-...
As of today one of the world's top oil exporters announced that has exchanged about $15 billion of its FX reserves into gold. Earlier, Iran announced that the country has converted about 15 percent of its foreign exchange reserves into gold and "will not need to import the metal for the next 10 years." There is your mystery buyer to all that gold the International Monetary Fund was selling in Q3. And since Ahmadinejad said that Iran's total FX reserves exceed $100 billion, the amount of gold in stock held by Iran is more than $15 billion -- which is equivalent more than 345 tonnes at a closing price of about $1,350. Which also means that the World Gold Council's official gold holdings are in dire need of an update, as Iran does not appear anywhere on the IMF's listing of official gold holders, and with more 345 tonnes, it would make Iran a top-15 holder of the yellow metal.
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