You are here
''Midas'' commentary for February 4 posted in the clear at GoldSeek
G7 Mulls IMF Gold Sales to Help Poor
By Katie Allen
Reuters
Saturday, February 5, 2005
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?
type=businessNews&storyID=7547548
LONDON -- The International Monetary Fund will look into using its
huge gold reserves to help finance debt relief for the world's
poorest countries on the urging of the Group of Seven rich nations,
ministers said on Saturday.
Finance chiefs from the G7 in their communique issued at the end of
the two-day meeting said IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato will look
at proposals to revalue or sell gold reserves to offer debt relief to
alleviate global poverty.
"I believe this is the first time there has been a mention of the use
of gold in a G7 communique for achieving debt relief," said British
finance minister Gordon Brown, who hosted the two-day meeting in
London.
He said gold sales as well as revaluations would be investigated and
Rato would report back in April, when the IMF meets in Washington.
"To finance the relief of debts owed to the IMF and to enable the
Fund to continue to play a role in the poorest countries, the
Managing Director has stated that he will bring forward proposals ...
covering the Fund's gold and other resources and in an orderly way,"
the communique said.
Rato said on Friday there are clear ways to sell gold effectively if
IMF shareholders decide to proceed. But he stressed he was not
providing an opinion.
"Certainly we have done it before and we think there are clear ways
to do it that will be the most effective from a financial point of
view," he said at the London meeting.
The world's poorest nations owe $12 billion to the IMF, Brown said.
Overall, sub-Saharan Africa owes some $70 billion to multilateral
lenders, and developing countries say repayments are crippling them
by diverting funds from education and health care.
Brown has made debt relief the centerpiece of Britain's 2005
presidency of the Group of Eight, which includes the G7 nations
France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United States as well
as Russia.
He first proposed revaluing IMF gold stocks with off-market sales
last year. Under a 1971 agreement, most IMF gold is valued at $40 to
$50 an ounce, or about one-tenth of current market prices. The fund
holds 103.4 million ounces of gold.
Brown has said revaluing the gold could free up billions of dollars
to ease debt burdens on the world's poor.
But U.S. Treasury Under Secretary John Taylor said the United States
had other plans for alleviating poverty.
Asked about using IMF gold stocks he said: "The United States is not
convinced that's the necessary way to do it."
The United States has a de-facto veto power on IMF gold sales because
of its voting weight at the fund.
Leading gold producer Canada was cautious in its support.
"If a technical answer can be found that does not compromise the
IMF's integrity, we are prepared to go with it," said Canadian
Finance Minister Ralph Goodale after the London talks.
But the plan received key backing from the world's largest gold
producer, South Africa, although Finance Minister Trevor Manuel
cautioned there must be a rational approach to sales.
"Unless we manage this process, you might have disruptive sales,
which will have disastrous consequences for gold-producing
countries," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the G7 talks.
He suggested staggered sales to ensure market stability.
"I would rather have an arrangement where we agree to sell, agree to
order, agree to a queuing system. I would be happy to have the IMF
have some preference in that queue so that we don't impede the debt
relief," he said.
----------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:
gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:
gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
----------------------------------------------------
RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Free sites:
http://www.cbs.marketwatch.com
http://www.capitalupdates.com/
http://www.silver-investor.com
http://www.thebulliondesk.com/
http://www.goldismoney.info/index.html
http://www.minersmanual.com/minernews.html
http://www.a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com/euro-vs-dollar.html
http://www.investmentrarities.com
http://www.kereport.com
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/home.htm
(In Spanish)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/english.htm
(In English)
http://www.resourceinvestor.com
Subscription sites:
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/
http://www.interventionalanalysis.com
http://www.investmentindicators.com/
Eagle Ranch discussion site:
http://os2eagle.net/checksum.htm
Ted Butler silver commentary archive:
http://www.investmentrarities.com/
----------------------------------------------------
COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS
Blanchard & Co. Inc.
909 Poydras St., Suite 1900
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112
888-413-4653
http://www.blanchardonline.com
Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East First Ave., Suite 807
Denver, Colorado 80206
1-800-869-5115
http://www.USAGOLD.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
cpm@usagold.com
Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
http://www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net
El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
http://www.eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net
Gold & Silver Investments Ltd.
Mespil House
37 Adelaide Rd
Dublin 2
Ireland
+353 1 2315260/6
Fax: +353 1 2315202
http://www.goldinvestments.org
info@gold.ie
Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
http://www.gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com
Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
http://www.kitco.com
Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
http://www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com
Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
http://www.milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel
Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
http://www.mocoin.com
Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com
Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
http://www.swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com
The Moneychanger
Box 178
Westpoint, Tennessee 38486
http://www.the-moneychanger.com
Franklin Sanders
1-888-218-9226, 931-766-6066
----------------------------------------------------
HOW TO HELP GATA
If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.
By check:
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA
By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:
http://www.gata.org/creditcard.html
By GoldMoney:
http://www.GoldMoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L
Donors of $1,000 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled GATA.
Donors of $200 or more will receive copies
of "The ABCs of Gold Investing" by Michael
Kosares, proprietor of Centennial Precious
Metals in Denver, Colorado, and "The Coming
Collapse of the Dollar" by James Turk and
John Rubino.
GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.
