Quelle: picture alliance/dpa
Germany’s finance minister is thus opposing an initiative by countries such as France, Great Britain and Brazil. He gets support from the Bundesbank.
BFederal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) rejects further gold sales by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and is thus opposed to an initiative by countries such as France, Great Britain and Brazil. “There is no need to tap into the risk provisioning of the IMF,” said Lindner WELT AM SONNTAG. “Using the gold stocks for other purposes would not only be wrong in terms of regulatory policy, but would also be likely to undermine the proven role of the IMF.”
Lindner referred to the core task of the monetary fund: counteracting possible threats to global financial stability. “The IMF is adequately funded to fulfill this task,” said Lindner.
He gets support from the Bundesbank. There, too, a gold sale is viewed critically. “The Bundesbank rejects the use of reserves, including hidden gold reserves, for other than reserve purposes,” the Bundesbank told the newspaper when asked.
If French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has his way, at least a small part of the treasure should be sold in order to strengthen the IMF’s financial clout. In view of an impending funding gap, it cannot just be about additional contributions from the member countries, Le Maire told WELT AM SONNTAG. “In addition, I call on the IMF to launch an analysis of the fund’s internal resources, including gold sales,” he said.
At the IMF meeting in mid-April, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, spoke out in favor of “considering a targeted sale of IMF gold”. At the meeting in Washington, Brazil’s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad also discussed selling a “small part of the gold holdings” in order to cover the fund’s more urgent needs.
The International Monetary Fund holds the world‘s third-largest gold reserves at 2,814 tons, behind the United States and Germany. Most recently, around 400 tons were handed over in 2009 and 2010 to finance emergency loans for poor countries.
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