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State Bank denies that 1000 tons of gold is kept among people
The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Giau has given official answer to the question raised by a National Assembly’s Deputy about the deposits, and the gold and dollar being kept among people.
On November 22, Giau released a document answering the National Assembly’s question raised by Deputy Hoang Thi Hao.
By October 15, the deposit balance had increased by 0.64 percent (5400 billion dong) in comparison with late September 2010
“With the above figure, one can see that there is no sign of people trying to withdraw their money from the banking system to purchase gold and foreign currencies,” Giau affirmed.
Regarding the information that about 1000 tons of gold and five billion dollars are being kept by the public, the Governor’s document provided the figures ont the gold imports and exports in the period from 1998 to September 2010.
The figures, sourced from the General Department of Customs and State Bank of Vietnam, show that the total volume of imported gold is 339.86 tons, while the exported volume is 268.86 tons
The Governor did not give any further explanation besides the figures. He also did not comment the information that a big amount of dollars, five billion dollar, is being kept among people.
Also in the document, the Governor of the State Bank addressed the issue of adopting measures to improve the forecasting. He said the State Bank is perfecting the methodology for defining the norms serving the statistical work, to match that applied by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the international practice.
The State Bank of Vietnam is also step by step creating a database for forecasting macroeconomic indices, and banking operation in short and medium terms. The central bank is cooperating with international financial institutions to build up the system of indices
Prior to that, on November 9, reporters raised a question about the volume of gold being kept among people.
“The World Gold Council thinks that the total volume of gold being kept among people may reach 1000 tons. What is your comment?”
Giau answered that Vietnam has never released statistics about the gold volume kept among people. “I do not know what the basis is for the figure of 1000 tons of gold, which is equal to 45 percent of GDP,” Giau said. “If it is true, Vietnam is really very rich, and the GDP per capita would not be $1200, but $1600 or even higher,” he added.
Giau went on to say that the State Bank of Vietnam is drafting a Government’s decree on gold management, and the bank will collect necessary materials to release official figures. However, Giau said that the central bank will only have the figures based on official imports and exports.
The rumour that 1000 tons of gold is being kept among the public has been spread in recent days, when there has been a strong fluctuation of gold prices. Some experts believe that a big volume of gold, about 1000 tons, is being kept among people, while that gold should be used as the capital to develop the national economy.
At 8 am of November 23, most big gold shops quoted the prices at 35.7-35.78 million dong per tael (Purchase and sale prices). A tael is equal to 1.2 oz.
vietnamnet
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