Interest among central banks to own Gold increases

IMF Oct gold sales down 40% to 628,000 ounces
commodityonline.com
International Monetary Fund said its gold sale in October dropped 40 percent to 628,000 ounces compared with September.

In a statement, IMF said it has cut down the sales under its pre announced open-market bullion sales plan as interest among central banks to own the metal increased as a hedge against economic uncertainty.

The IMF last year announced planned to sell 403.3 tonnes of gold to boost its lending resources. cumulative on-market sales of IMF gold to the end of October was 4.8 million ounces (148.6 tonnes).

Gold previously sold directly to central banks were 222 tonnes to India, 200 tonnes to Mauritius, 10 tonnes to Sri Lanka and 10 tonnes to Bangladesh.

October's gold sales were sharply below the 1.04 million ounces sold in September, when nearly a third of the sale was going to Bangladesh.

Many analysts expect world central banks as a group could become net buyers this year despite IMF's gold sales, reversing a trend in the last several decades.

Gold prices hit an all-time high of $1,424.10 early this month before retreating. The rally was driven in part by expectations that the Federal Reserve would buy back U.S. Treasuries to stimulate economic growth.

However, gold's rally appeared to stall despite concerns about the fiscal health of euro zone economies after a bailout on debt-stricken Ireland and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.