No sale of gold reserves - Central Bank

The Central Bank yesterday denied news reports that it was selling its gold reserves. Recently, there have been allegations that the Central Bank has been selling large quantities of gold from its reserves over the past few months.

These stories are apparently based on a copy of a fake letter dated 14th July 2007 purported to have been issued under the signature of the "Secretary to the Finance Minister" which refers to a sale of "7000 kg of 24 k gold bullion", the Central Bank said.

This fake letter has already been referred to the Criminal Investigations Department by the Ministry of Finance & Planning for further action. It appears that certain interested parties are making use of this fake letter to spread a canard that the country's gold reserves are being sold.

"Such allegations are blatantly false," a Central Bank spokesman said.