- LONDON: Wednesday, 15 March 2000
The Great Gold Give-Away
- Members of the public are being invited to take part in a gold "give-away"
as part of a new campaign by the World Gold Council to draw attention
to the government's plans for continuing gold sales from the UK's reserves.
They are being offered the opportunity to win one of a hundred gold sovereigns
- worth £70 each - in the next phase of the WGC's "Hold onto our gold"
campaign. Advertisements in national newspapers over the next few days
will provide details of the scheme which is being announced ahead of next
week's fifth sale in the government's current series of sales. The sale
by auction of 25 tonnes of gold takes place next Tuesday - Budget Day.
"On Tuesday afternoon Chancellor Gordon Brown will deliver his Budget
in the House of Commons. Earlier in the day, his Treasury team will have
overseen something in which they should take less pride - the sale by
auction of yet another 25 tonnes of Britain's gold reserves", said Miss
Haruko Fukuda, chief executive of the London-based World Gold Council.
"The previous four auctions, since July 1999, have lost the British taxpayer
tens of millions of pounds, by selling the gold reserves at what are even
today historically low prices."
The UK Treasury has already announced that it will continue with the
bi-monthly sales of 25 tonnes for the next year. The intention is to dispose
of 415 tonnes from a total reserve of 715 tonnes and reduce the proportion
of gold in the nation's gross reserves to around 7%. Most of the other
major European nations have between 30% and 50% of their reserves in gold.
"We believe these sales are inadvisable as they undermine Britain's economic
independence", said Miss Fukuda.
Last summer in the aftermath of the first sales, which drove the gold
price down to 20-year lows, more than 70,000 people signed up to the WGC's
"Hold on to our Gold" campaign. Last week the World Gold Council published
the results of a MORI survey conducted in Britain, which showed only 12
per cent support for the gold sale, against 48 per cent opposition, with
the other 40 per cent either don't know or holding no firm opinion. Two-thirds
of those interviewed also wanted more than 15% of the UK's reserves to
be in gold.
"The British public will be able to participate in a highly unusual symbolic
gesture to demonstrate just how little they back Gordon Brown's gold give-away,
which is now established to be one of the most unpopular moves by this
government," said Miss Fukuda.
"These advertisements will, hopefully, prompt greater public awareness
of these unpopular gold auctions, and perhaps galvanise growing opposition
to their continuation throughout the rest of this year and into 2001."
Ends
Note: Modern gold sovereigns weigh 7.98 grams, slightly more than a quarter
of an ounce, and are minted in 22 carat gold and contain 7.315 grams of
gold, slightly less than a quarter of an ounce. Since January 1, 2000
they can be bought VAT-free within the EU.
Contacts:
Miss Haruko Fukuda, World Gold Council 0171 930 5171
Gary Mead, World Gold Council 0171 930 5171 / 0171 766 2719 (dir) 01892
549 525 (home) Keith Irons, Bankside Consultants 0171 220 7477 / 0585
356 639 (cell) 01256 389 298 (home) |