|
And so is fiddling around with it.
* * *
Doubts on Dutch Gold
Reserves
From Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau
(Netherlands National Press Bureau)
Rijswijk, Netherlands
Thursday, November 29, 2012
http://www.nisnews.nl/public/291112_2.htm
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The Christian Democratic
Appeal (CDA) and Socialist Party (SP) opposition parties are questioning
whether it is desirable for Dutch state gold reserves to be largely stored
abroad.
More and more citizens, politicians, and economists
in Europe are questioning whether the foreign gold reserves, which their
country possesses on paper, are still in fact physically there. Germany
decided last month to move to verification.
In the next three years the German Bundesbank is to recall about 4 percent of its gold
reserves from America, at the same time looking to see if the ingots are
pure. CDA and SP want to know whether the Netherlands will follow the German
example and physically check the genuineness of the precious metal.
For now, the answer appears to be no.
"Repatriation is not yet on the agenda at the moment," De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) spokesman Remko
Vellenga said yesterday.
The Dutch government says it has 612 tonnes of gold -- with a value of around E24 billion --
and is thereby in the top 10 of countries with gold reserves. The bulk of the
Dutch gold reserves is in America and, to a lesser
extent, in Canada and the United Kingdom. The rest, about 10 percent, is in
Amsterdam.
DNB does not wish to say exactly how much gold is at
each location, but it is willing to say why it is there. "We pursue a
location policy. The gold is spread out because trading is easier in this
way. London, for example, is a big gold market," Vellenga
said.
DNB receives an annual survey from the other central
banks in which all gold data is reported. "This survey is valued
annually," Vellenga said. "The internal
accountant of the foreign central bank also reports to our internal
accountant. For
us, this is sufficient."
|
