Allegations on Central Bank local gold sales false

Certain parties are intent on misleading the public that the country’s gold reserves are being sold to enable the Government to meet its expenses, the Central Bank said. The Bank said such allegations are false and the public should not be misguided by false information on local gold sales by the Central Bank.

The Central Bank said there have been allegations recently that the Central Bank has been selling large quantities of gold from its reserves over the past few months. IT said there have also been public inquiries as well as newspaper articles referring to the sale of gold by the Central Bank.

The Central Bank said: “These stories and inquiries may perhaps be based on a copy of a fake letter dated July 14, 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 24K gold bullion’.

This fake letter has already been referred to the Criminal Investigations Department by the Finance and Planning Ministry for further action.

In the 1990s, prior to the deregulation of gold imports, the Central Bank imported physical quantities of gold to sell to retail customers. Subsequently, however, this function was entrusted to the commercial banks and several banks still continue to import and sell gold to retail customers.

Therefore, the public, if interested in purchasing gold, may direct their inquiries to the commercial banks which trade gold locally.

In its foreign assets portfolio, the Central Bank has foreign currencies, foreign currency denominated investment instruments and gold. The gold is held in the Central Bank’s gold custodian accounts overseas.

The Bank conducts transactions with foreign counterparts in all foreign assets, including gold, as a part of its international reserve management operations. These transactions are done in accordance with the Monetary Law Act”.