Turkey imported 23.3 tons of gold in the January-June period of this year. The İAB attributed the increase in gold imports to increased scrap gold rotation in domestic markets. Observers said this first half figure may have attracted attention due to the fact that gold imports were very low last year.
The price of gold per gram was $51.60, and quarter gold coins were traded at $85 in Turkish markets when Today’s Zaman went to print. Elsewhere, spot gold rose to an all-time peak above $1,600 an ounce after rising more than 3 percent for a second straight week last week, a feat it has not achieved since February 2009.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency Monday in İstanbul, İAB Vice President Osman Saraç said Turkey’s gold imports were “very” low in the first half of 2010, and that is why the imports in the same months of this year “seem so high.” Turkey imported 42.5 tons of gold in 2010. With gold prices skyrocketing, the number of gold coins, called Cumhuriyet altını, produced by the Mint and Stamp Office increased by 73 percent in the first five months of this year over 2010. Likewise, Turkey’s precious stone imports increased by 34.6 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same months of 2010. Recalling the increased gold prices in the market in the past few years, Saraç said most people flocked to exchange their gold for money and that this created a huge amount of scrap gold to be used as raw material for bar gold production. “The gold supply to the domestic market was around 122 tons, a remarkable amount, and this led to low gold imports during 2010.” Saraç said they expected the country’s gold imports to be around 50 tons this year.
Also commenting on the issue, the chairman of İstanbul Gold Refinery A.Ş. (İAR), Özcan Halaç, said on Monday in İstanbul that citizens should be encouraged to bring their gold assets to the market. Any kind of valuable asset that is withheld from the registered investment environment such as banks or the stock exchange is called “under-the-pillow savings” in Turkish investment literature. “The total size of under-the-pillow gold assets is estimated at $255 billion. … Considering that the total size of assets in Turkish banks is around $657 billion, this is a huge amount,” he said. According to Halaç, the total amount of under-the-pillow gold in Turkey stands at 5,000 tons. Pointing out that exporting this gold reserve would help drop the country’s current account deficit (CAD) significantly, he said customers are reluctant to exchange their gold in anticipation that it would gain further value in the market.
Halaç recalled that Turkey’s gold imports declined to 40 tons from 200-ton levels during the 2009 global credit crunch. “The price of gold per gram was $36 in 2010, but it recently jumped to $50. Most investors have now opted to wait and see developments in the markets before they make the most profitable trade possible.”
The volatility that Halaç drew attention to can also be seen in global markets; five years ago an ounce of gold cost slightly more than $600, and last year that doubled, reaching $1,200. However, based on the increase in gold production, it can be said that gold remains one of the safest and most preferred investment instruments in Turkey, as it is in other parts of the world. Gold is considered one of the most reliable investment alternatives by investors, especially when political tension is on the rise or the global economy is struggling. The global financial crisis of 2008, the rising tension in the Arab world and the debt problems of some countries in the eurozone are the main driving forces behind record-breaking gold prices in world commodity markets. |
Source : todayszaman.com
Hit : 811
|
