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华盛顿 (XFN-ASIA) - 国际货币基金会(IMF)一个专家委员会建议IMF出售400吨、总值约66亿美元的黄金储备, 以减少对贷款利息收入的依赖。 不过, 该委员会表示, IMF须审慎进行任何沽售黄金的行动, 以免影响全球黄金市场稳定性。 该委员会的成员包括前联储局主席格林斯潘。 IMF的黄金储备超过3,200吨。
WASHINGTON -- The International Monetary Fund should sell some gold to cover losses, said an advisory panel that includes former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.
The Washington-based IMF could sell 400 metric tons of gold, valued at about $6.6 billion, and invest the proceeds in interest-bearing assets, the panel said in a report released today. Sales should be handled in a way that avoids "disturbances" in the gold market, a press release said.
Gold sales are part of a package of measures intended to reduce the IMF's dependence on the interest it earns from loans to member nations. The fund projects a loss of about $102 million this fiscal year after countries including Brazil and Argentina repaid loans early.
"If adopted, the measures would set the fund's finances on a sustainable basis, and ensure a solid foundation for the fund's important role in the international community," panel chairman Andrew Crockett, president of JPMorgan Chase International, said in a statement.
The IMF would earn about $195 million a year by selling a portion of its total holdings of 3,217 metric tons and investing the proceeds, the report says.
Gold futures for April delivery rose $6.80, or 1.1 percent, to $657 an ounce at 1:06 p.m. on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices earlier reached $660.70 an ounce. Before today, gold was up 14 percent in the past year.
The contemplated volume of gold sales is "huge, but it's going to be sold piecemeal over years," said Michael Guido, director of hedge-fund marketing at Societe Generale SA in New York. "It's not going to have an immediate impact on prices."
IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato, who appointed the eight-member advisory panel, has already started discussing the recommendations with the fund's executive board, according to the press release. Formal proposals will be submitted in coming months, it said.
Gold sales would require the approval of member countries including the United States, which has a veto over IMF decisions. A Treasury Department spokesman couldn't immediatoldy be reached for comment.
The IMF has sold gold before. The most recent sales took place between 1976 and 1980, when the fund unloaded 50 million ounces following an international agreement to reduce the role of the metal in the global monetary system.
The panel also recommended investing some of the money contributed by member nations, known as "quotas," broadening existing investments, and charging members for advisory services.
Founded at the end of World War II to promote global economic stability, the IMF keeps a watch on the currency, trade and economic policies of its 185 members and makes nonbinding recommendations for improvement.
The fund also provides low-cost loans to countries in financial need on the condition that borrowers undertake economic policy changes such as adjusting their balance of payments or reducing inflation.
The other members of the committee are Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of Harvard Management Co.; South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni; Bank of Mexico Governor Guillermo Ortiz; Hamad Al-Sayari, governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency; and Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China. |
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