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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who is touring Latin American countries discussed issues of economic cooperation in Venezuela. Following the talks Lavrov declared that Moscow is ready to consider the proposal of Caracas about keeping its gold and currency reserves in Russia.

The proposal of Caracas is one of the new points of President Hugo Chavez’s programme of the improvement of the Venezuelan economy. Last week in his interview for a Venezuelan TV channel he declared that West Europe and the USA are in a deep crisis at present, and this is where the larger part of Venezuelan gold and currency reserves are kept. The leader of the country also expressed regret about the so-called Libyan precedent when foreign countries first freeze government accounts abroad and then use that money to finance the opposition. Chavez is convinced that in this connection “the time is ripe to check the stability of the economies of such countries as China, Russia and Brazil”.

BRICS countries whose economies are growing fast may become more stable than the USA and Europe which are in the grip of a crisis. This is the opinion of financial analyst Dmitry Susanov:

“In the context of US bonds reduced rating and scandals around rating agencies it is impossible to confidently assert that US bonds have the highest reliability rating and are a quiet haven for investors. For this reason we can only welcome the desire of developing countries to diversify their economies. We notice political factors here because Venezuelan authorities want to have political support in the region, Russian support as well.”

Dmitry Susanov can see another reason here. He believes that there probably was a cross-proposal from Russia. In return for Venezuela’s assets Caracas will be given considerable discounts for buying weapons and other economic preferences. This was indirectly confirmed by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Following talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, he declared that Caracas may ask Moscow to enlarge its loan in the near future. Part of the money is expected to be allocated to defence and the rest will go to the development of the infrastructure. Earlier it was reported that Venezuela will buy a large batch of weapons, among them T-72 tanks and BM-30 Smerch systems, on account of the Russian $4bln loan.

Incidentally, recovering assets from abroad and consolidating the armed forces are not Hugo Chavez’ only methods of guaranteeing the security of Venezuela’s economic future. On Tuesday the president signed a decree on the nationalization of the prospecting and extraction of gold in the country. This strategic move was made at a time of the dramatic leap of gold prices. According to the Swiss UBS bank, the price of gold will exceed $2,000 per ounce before the end of the year and will keep growing. Chavez who has been in office for 12 years must have taken into consideration both financial analysts’ forecasts and international experience. The USA bought gold on a large scale in the last century and in this way strengthened the dollar and made it one of the most required world currencies. At present the dollar’s leading position has sagged and this clears the way for new regional currencies, in particular the sucre, the potential Latin American common currency.
 
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China should ban the export of gold, platinum and silver.

Why are we still producing so much when Australia and South Africa have scaled back their production?
 
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