伊朗为防资产冻结,正把欧元资产转化为黄金及股票类资产
Good news for long-suffering gold bugs. Iran is switching achunk of its $80bn reserves into bullion.
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Gold seasonal chart: click to enlarge
Mohsen Talaie, the deputy foreign minister in charge of economicaffairs, said Tehran was pulling its money out of euro instruments(presumably Bunds, BTps, EIB bonds, etc) to avoid sanctions overits nuclear weapons programme.
“Upon the decision of the government’s task force a segmentof Iran’s foreign exchange assets will be converted into realassets such as gold and stocks,” he told Iran’s Etemad-e Mellinewspaper.
Europe is planning to freeze the assets of Iran’s biggest bankMelli. A draft communique for the EU-US summit on Thursday confirmsthat Europe is ready to join the crack down on Ahmadinejad.
It all goes to prove the gold bug axiom that nations - likepeople - will invariably turn to bullion as the ultimate store ofvalue when all is threatened.
Iran’s demarche did not seem to help gold prices today. Itslid $9.5 to $883 an ounce, off almost $150 since the giddy heightsof February, despite the surge in oil prices. But then the goldangle to this news has not been given any prominence.
But then too, there are a lot of headwinds. As you can see fromthis 26-year season chart, gold tends to have a rough patch fromApril to early July. It then rockets in September and October(ceteris paribus).
The Iran news may have hurt the euro, which dived in morningtrading. The concerted drive by the Fed, the US Treasury, and evenPresident Bush to talk up the dollar before the G8 meeting in Japanmay have spooked the dollar shorts. Hank Paulson used the word“intervention” for the first time. It would be dangerous totake on the combined might of the world’s fortress banks.
With oil at the current price, Iran is building up reservesfast. If it parks a 20pc or so of the build-up in bullion could beenough to swing the gold market (tiny by comparison withenergy).
But then you never know. These regimes talk with forkedtongue.
When I asked Barrick Gold’s Peter Munk in Davos whether it wassignificant that Vladimir Putin had ordered his central bank toswitch 10pc of Russia’s reserves into gold, he just laughed.“That must mean Putin wants to sell gold,” he said.
Nothing is ever what it seems.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has withdrawn around$75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from beingblocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputednuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said.
Western powers are warning the IslamicRepublic of more punitive measures if it rejects an incentivesoffer and presses on with sensitive nuclear work, but the world'sfourth-largest oil exporter is showing no sign of backing down.
"Part of Iran's assets in Europeanbanks have been converted to gold and shares and another part hasbeen transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister incharge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying.
Iranian officials were not immediatelyavailable to comment on the report in Shahrvand-e Emrouz, amoderate weekly, which did not specify the time period for thewithdrawals which it said were ordered by President MahmoudAhmadinejad.
"About $75 billion of Iran's foreignassets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back toIran based on Ahmadinejad's order," the weekly said.
Iran's Etemad-e Melli newspaper, alsoquoting Talai, last week also reported the country was withdrawingassets from European banks but did not give any figures.
On Saturday, Iran again ruled outsuspending uranium enrichment despite the offer by six world powers ofhelp in developing a civilian nuclear program if it stoppedactivities the United States and others suspect are designed tomake bombs.
The offer -- agreed last month by theUnited States, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and France -- is a revised versionof one rejected by Tehran two years ago.
Iran's refusal to suspend nuclearenrichment, which can provide fuel for power plants or material for weapons ifrefined much more, has drawn three rounds of U.N. sanctions since2006. Tehran says it aims only to generate electricity.
EU diplomats have said the bloc ispreparing an asset and funds freeze on Iran's biggest bank,state-owned BankMelli, but that it first wants to see how Tehran responds tothe new offer.
Iran is making windfall gains fromrecord global oilprices and said in April its foreign exchange reserves stood at morethan $80 billion.
Iran's foreign reserves figure has beenclimbing steadily. Some analysts say that, alongside rising oilrevenues, Iran has been helped by its decision to shift away fromthe U.S. dollar into other currencies as the dollar hasweakened.
Iran has made the shift as Washingtonhas tried to isolate the Islamic state, including imposingsanctions on Iranian banks. That has pushed many Western banks toscrap dollar dealings with Iran or even end businesscompletely.
Western countries suspect Iran isseeking the ability to make nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its secretive program ispurely aimed at generating energy.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by FredrikDahl; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) |
