Een confiscatie voor de dommeriken
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For many investors, physical bullion holdings are still the best way to invest in precious metals. Physical gold and silver does not carry counter-party risk or receive downgrades. Furthermore, investors can take comfort in the fact that precious metals are an asset outside of the problematic banking system. However, some governments are trying to change these benefits as an act of financial desperation.
Government officials in Turkey will soon launch an incentive plan for consumers to store their bullion inside the country’s banking system. The WSJ reports, “The push to tap into the individual gold reserve-the traditional form of savings here- is part of Ankara’s efforts to reduce a finance gap that is currently about 10 percent of gross domestic product.” The Istanbul Gold Refinery estimates that 5,000 tons of gold may be stored outside of the banking system in Turkey.
One of the new incentives being considered is interest-yielding gold-deposit bank accounts that would allow customers to earn interest and withdraw their gold bars from automated teller machines. This appears to be a challenging feat for the Turkish government, because most people do not hold gold for interest payments, but rather its intrinsic qualities. For example, people not having to rely on a bank’s automated teller machines to return their own gold is very comforting in a time of crisis. “Turkey has historically been hit by crises and inflation, so the tradition of holding gold outside the system could be hard to shift,” said Murat Ucer, an economist at Global Source Partners, an Istanbul-based research consultancy. According to the World Gold Council, Turkish consumer demand for gold bar and coin investments hit 80.4 tons ($4.1 billion) last year, compared to 40.5 tons ($1.6 billion) in 2010.