Five Questions About Gold The IMF Refuses To Answer

You'll recall that a few weeks ago, we interviewed the IMF on why it had blocked investor Eric Sprott's attempt to buy gold from the fund. We then spoke with Eric Sprott and the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee, better known as GATA for their take on the matter.

Along the way, both GATA and Sprott suggested we ask the IMF some questions that the fund has avoided answering in the past. So we did. They were:

• What are the incentives for the IMF not to sell gold on the open market or to investors, be it institutional or retail?
• What are the designated depositories for gold?
• Did gold physically change hands with the banks you have sold to so far or was the transaction basically bookkeeping stuff (the IMF still holds the physical gold in this case)?
• Are there available records on the actual serial numbers of bullion? How is the gold at the IMF tracked and accounted for?
• When the IMF says it will "phase out" the sal of available gold, could you be more specific? What amount of gold in regard to what amount of time.
• Does IMF support a need for total transparency in the sale of gold despite the effects it could have on various markets?

The official response from Alistair Thomson, the IMF's media guy, was:

"I looked through your message; we don’t have anything more for you on this."

Interesting, considering the IMF refused to answer similar questions posed by GATA and Sprott. Some are perfectly reasonable questions too, like did gold physically change hands? What does the term "phase out" actually mean?

Certainly this unwillingness is only fodder for skeptical gold folks out there.