This Month in Gold – August 2012

India Gold Rush Picking Up Pace
Forbes – Prithviraj Kothari, President of the Bombay Bullion Association, expects Indian gold imports to increase by 20% during the second half of 2012 as compared to the first half. Kothari sees India importing 300 tons from July to December, up from 250 tons from January to June. Currently, gold is selling for slightly more than 30,000 rupees per 10 grams. If the yellow metal again dips below this price point, Kothari says import demand could go even higher. India satisfies over 90% of its gold demand via imports. 
Read Full Article>>
 
New Bullion Vault in HK Signals Rising Asian Wealth
Bloomberg – Asian financial hub Hong Kong is about to get a new gold-storage facility, and it’s going to be a big one. In September, Malca-Amit Global Ltd. plans to open Hong Kong’s largest bullion vault, which will have the capacity to store 1,000 metric tons within the international airport compound. Malca-Amit says it is opening the vault to meet rising demand from banks and wealthy individuals looking to diversify into physical bullion. Meanwhile, in an effort to raise its share of the global gold trade, neighboring Singapore has announced that it will exempt investment-grade gold, silver, and platinum from the local Goods-and-Services Tax starting in October. 
Read Full Article>> 
 
China Blows UK Gold Holdings Out of the Water in Five Months
ZeroHedge – According to World Gold Council-International Monetary Fund statistics, the UK now has a meager 310 tons of bullion in its official reserve holdings. From January to May of this year, China trounced this figure by importing 315 tons of the yellow metal through Hong Kong. Up next for a rapid-fire overtake? Portugal with 383 tons.
Read Full Article>>

Merrill Too Sees Gold at $2,000 by Year-End
CNBC – Francisco Blanch, Head of Global Commodity and Multi-Asset Strategy Research at investment banking giant Merrill Lynch, has come on board the gold bandwagon. According to Blanch, a third round of large-scale asset purchases by the US Federal Reserve in the second half of 2012 will send gold soaring to $2,000 an ounce. “We believe that ultimately the Fed will be forced to do quantitative easing,” Blanch opined on CNBC Asia’s Squawk Box.
Read Full Article>>
 
Turkey Pays for Iranian Oil in Gold
Financial Times– As Washington’s leverage erodes, its acquaintance with the ‘bump in a rug’ theory grows with each passing day. Impose dollar-based financial sanctions on Tehran, and Ankara, your fellow NATO ally, will simply find another way to buy much-needed oil from its eastern neighbor; pay for it in gold bullion, for example. In May, Turkey’s trade with Iran conspicuously jumped 513 percent and hit $1.7 billion. $1.4 billion of this total was yellow gold exchanged for black gold. Substituting bullion for greenbacks has also helped improve Turkey’s trade deficit, as Turkey can buy Iranian crude at about a $6 discount to Brent crude. 
Read Full Article>>
 
China Looks to Expand Domestic PM Trading
Reuters– According to a source familiar with the matter, Chinese authorities have proposed rules to expand the trading of precious metals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange to the country’s vast interbank market. The move aims to transform China into a major precious metals trading center and continue broader reforms to liberate domestic financial markets. With gold the first metal to begin expanded trading, Chinese authorities hope to gain greater pricing power and to boost liquidity in the chief non-fiat reserve asset. According to the Journal, the interbank precious metals trading will include spot, forward, and swap contracts. 
Read Full Article>> 

Get Peter Schiff’s latest gold market analysis – click here – for a free subscription to his exclusive weekly email updates.
Interested in learning more about physical gold and silver?
Call 1-888-GOLD-160 and speak with a Precious Metals Specialist today!