Campaign continues on gold sales

South Africa intends to take its campaign to halt further gold sales by central banks to the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank later this month, news reports said.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday that although the IMF had shelved plans to sell its gold reserves to finance debt relief to developing countries, South Africa wanted a similar commitment from industrialised nations.

The IMF reversed its position on gold sales last week, accepting the view of campaigners that it should simply revalue its bullion stocks to provide extra capital to write off debts of the poorest countries.

"Its a cruel joke for the world's wealthy governments to protest that they can't afford to cancel the debts. The IMF is sitting on US $22 billion of unrealised capital gains on its gold reserves, since it values its gold at US $47 per ounce rather than the true market value of US $262 per ounce," an article in June by the debt campaign group Jubilee 2000 said.

Britain is about to auction bullion on the open market for a second time this year in a move producers fear would see gold prices - which in July hit a 20 year low - slump further, threatening jobs and the industry in several African countries.

Manuel said South Africa would use the annual IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington on 25-30 September to try and secure "a better deal" for developing countries, according to news reports.