Bolivia ditches new gold rule within days to curb ‘speculation’
Bolivia’s central bank ditched new rules on reporting its gold reserves which it had published just two days earlier.
The bank said in a statement Friday that it wouldn’t implement the resolution to avoid “speculation that seeks to damage the economic stability of the country.”
The resolution would have allowed the bank to report its gold holdings twice a year: on Nov. 5 and May 5. That could potentially have allowed it to access more liquidity to pay for imports and address a crippling fuel shortage.
By law, the institution must keep at least 22 tons of the metal, but the change might have allowed it to drop below this level between the reporting dates.
Bolivia needs “flexibility” in the management of its gold holdings in order to maintain “the normal functioning of international payments in the country”, the bank said in the original resolution posted on its website.
On Friday, the bank’s president Edwin Rojas told reporters in La Paz that as of Nov. 7 the bank had $121 million in cash and about $1.9 billion in gold. The bank has more than 22 tons of the metal, he said.
Bolivia is undergoing an economic crisis as a shortage of foreign currency causes scarcity of fuel and other key goods as well as accelerating inflation. The crisis is being aggravated by clashes between supporters of President Luis Arce and former President Evo Morales.
