Treasury written question – answered at on 22 February 2008.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much in net ounces of gold has been sold from the foreign exchange reserves since 1997; what the net proceeds have been from those sales; and what the current value would be of the amount sold.
holding answer
395 tonnes of gold were sold from the reserves between July 1999 and March 2002 and re-invested in interest-bearing foreign currency assets. Other central banks have adopted similar policies. The total proceeds were around $3.5 billion, equivalent to around £2.3 billion (using exchange rates at the time of the sales). On
The programme was part of a restructuring of the foreign currency and gold reserves aimed at achieving a better-balanced portfolio. As a result of the programme a one-off reduction in risk of approximately 30 per cent. was achieved, as measured by a type of widely used financial risk model—Value-at-Risk.
Yes4 people think so
No1 person thinks not
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