By Kejal Vyas Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CARACAS (Dow Jones)--Venezuelan officials Friday welcomed the first air shipment of overseas gold holdings as part of a controversial move to repatriate the country's foreign reserves held in North America and Europe.
Crates holding gold bullion were shown on state television being offloaded at the capital city's Maiquetia airport and onto armored vehicles. Central Bank President Nelson Merentes deemed the arrival a "historic" moment for Venezuela, saying the first shipment was coming from "various European countries" via France.
Merentes said the government plans to eventually bring home 160 tons of gold over time. Before Friday, the country held 211 tons--nearly $11 billion worth--out of its 365 tons of gold reserves stored in U.S., Canadian and European banks. The country has the largest holdings in Latin America with nearly two-thirds of its $27.8 billion in international reserves held in the precious metal.
Merentes did not specify how much gold was shipped on Friday.
In August, President Hugo Chavez announced plans to repatriate foreign reserves as part of a broader effort to nationalize the country's gold sector. The move puzzled economists, who said it would further reduce transparency and raise more questions over the central bank's declining reserves. Some analysts speculated that, faced with several international arbitration cases seeking billions of dollars over nationalizations, the left-leaning South American government was looking to shield itself from having assets seized.
But Venezuelan officials say they aim to reduce exposure to debt-laden economies like the U.S. and those of Europe, while also taking advantage of the precious metal's rising price. Venezuela also has said it aims to diversify by investing in faster-growing allied nations like Russia and China, both of which recently have been making large investments into the oil-rich South American country.
"Now [the gold] will go to a place from which it should have never left: the central bank vaults [in Caracas]; not those in London or in Europe, but our own land," Chavez said earlier in the day.
The Central Bank of Venezuela already holds 154 tons of bullion domestically......read on
No comments:
Post a Comment