Archived World Gold Council Document

The following press release was issued by the Council's Public Policy Centre on 17 September 1997:

In the context of further discussion of central banks’ gold policy, the World Gold Council welcomes the recent statement by the Bank of Portugal that it is not proceeding with an inquiry into the possibility of sales of gold in view of the likely negative public reaction to any sale. The central bank of Portugal has thus acted decisively to quash repeated misleading market rumours. These rumours had previously been causing unnecessary disturbance to the world gold market and were thus inflicting unnecessary damage to the interests of all central banks that hold gold - including virtually all the world’s major central banks - gold producers and to the economies of all gold-producing countries. The World Gold Council looks forward to taking a constructive part in any future debate in Portugal over this issue.

The Council calls on other central banks to clarify their policy in this regard as the Bank of Portugal has done and thus put an end to the possibility of further rumours and the accompanying damaging uncertainty.