You are here
Gulf nations urged to boost gold reserves
By Tom Arnold
The National, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Thursday, December 9, 2010
http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/gcc-urged-to-boost-gold-reserves
Gulf Cooperation Council states should boost their foreign reserve holdings of gold to help shield their billions of dollars of assets from turbulence in global currency markets, say economists at the Dubai International Financial Centre Authority.
Diversifying more of their reserves from US dollars to the yellow metal would help to offer central banks in the region higher investment returns, said Dr Nasser Saidi, the chief economist of the authority, and Dr Fabio Scacciavillani, the authority's director of macroeconomics and statistics.
"When you have a great deal of economic uncertainty, going into paper assets, whatever they may be -- stocks, bonds, other types of equity -- is not attractive," said Dr Saidi. "That makes gold more attractive."
... Dispatch continues below ...
Opportunity in the gold coin market
Swiss America Trading Corp. alerts GATA supporters to an opportunistic area of the gold coin market. While the gold bullion market has been quite volatile lately and as of November 29 gold has risen only $7 per ounce over the last month, the MS64 $20 gold St. Gaudens coin has risen about 10 percent in the same time. The ratio between the price of these coins and the price of gold is rising. If you'd like to learn more about the ratio and $20 gold coins, Swiss America can e-mail you a three-year study of it as well as other information.
Swiss America also can provide a limited number of free copies of "Crashing the Dollar," a book written by Swiss America's president, Craig Smith.
For information about the ratio between the $20 gold pieces and the gold price and for a free copy of "Crashing The Dollar," please call Swiss America's Tim Murphy at 1-800-289-2646 X1041 or Fred Goldstein at X1033. Or e-mail them at trmurphy@swissamerica.com and figoldstein@swissamerica.com.
Declines in the dollar during recent months have dented the value of GCC oil revenues, which are predominantly weighted in the greenback.
Gold prices rose to a record high before falling back this week as the dollar strengthened.
Longer term, gold could play a more important role in the global monetary system as the shift from developed world to emerging markets intensified, the two economists said in a report published yesterday.
The dollar's position as the leading reserve currency was likely to diminish as US dominance of the world economy dwindled.
Gold could help to fill the void in the monetary system in the absence of the euro or the yuan proving viable alternative reserve currencies, they said.
The greenback accounts for almost two thirds of global reserves and serves as a currency peg for 89 nations including five of the six GCC currencies. The region is a significant holder of US Treasury bills, considered a low-risk but also low-return investment.
GCC states have historically maintained less than 5 per cent of their total reserves in gold. About 12 per cent of Kuwait's reserves are in gold, with the holdings of Saudi Arabia and Qatar even smaller at about 2.7 and 2.3 per cent, respectively. The UAE's gold reserves are believed to be negligible, although the Central Bank does not disclose the amount.
Recent turmoil in currency markets has hastened moves by other emerging markets including India, China, and Russia to add to their gold reserves. Gold accounts for about 25 per cent of the total reserves of the European Central Bank.
"The value of paper money is being debased by injections of quantitative easing in Europe, Japan, and the US," said Dr Scacciavillani. "Gold is a means of exchange not dependent on any political decisions and has a role as a hedge against inflation and economic risk."
While gold is proving to be a safe haven for investors during recent economic uncertainty, an easing of volatility in currency markets could yet attract investors back to paper assets.
"Investors are likely to get rid of gold when the economy picks up, as gold has no industrial value," said Alessandro Magnoli Bocchi, the chief economist of the Kuwait China Investment Company.
Longer term, the commodity's importance would not diminish the need for the GCC to develop more monetary independence by pressing ahead with a single currency project, he said.
* * *
Join GATA here:
Yukon Mining Investment e-Conference
Wednesday-Thursday, January 19-20, 2011
http://theyukonroom.com/yukon-eblast-static.html
Vancouver Resource Investment Conference
Vancouver Convention Centre West
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday-Monday, January 23-24, 2011
http://cambridgehouse3.com/conference-details/vancouver-resource-investm...
Cheviot Asset Management Sound Money Conference
Guildhall, London
Thursday, January 27, 2011
http://www.cheviot.co.uk/news/video/2010/12/the-cheviot-sound-money-conf...
Phoenix Investment Conference and Silver Summit
Renaissance Glendale Hotel and Spa
Glendale, Arizona
Friday-Saturday, February 18-19, 2011
http://cambridgehouse3.com/conference-details/phoenix-investment-confere...
Support GATA by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt:
Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009:
http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal
Or a video disc of GATA's 2005 Gold Rush 21 conference in the Yukon:
Help keep GATA going
GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at:
To contribute to GATA, please visit:
Prophecy Drills 71.17 Metres of 0.52 percent NiEq
(0.310 percent Nickel 0.466 g/t PGMs +Au and 0.223 percent copper)
from surface at Wellgreen Project in the Yukon
Prophecy Resource Corp. (TSX-V: PCY) reports that it has received additional assays results from its 100-percent-owned Wellgreen PGM Ni-Cu property in the Yukon, Canada. Diamond drill holes WS10-179 to WS10-182 were drilled during the summer of 2010 by Northern Platinum (which merged with Prophecy on September 23, 2010). WS10-183 was drilled by Prophecy in October 2010. Highlights from the newly received assays include 71.17 metres from surface of 0.52 percent NiEq (0.310 percent nickel, 0.466 g/t PGMs + Au, and 0.233 percent copper) and ended in mineralization. For more drill highlights, please visit:
http://prophecyresource.com/news_2010_nov29.php
