The Central Bank of Cyprus has made it clear that any sale of its gold reserves concerns the Bank and nobody else.
“The sale of gold held by the Central Bank is a matter that concerns exclusively the Board of Directors of the Bank,” Aliki Stylianou told CNA tonight, invited to comment on a Reuters report saying Cyprus has agreed to sell excess gold reserves to raise around 400 million euros and help finance part of its bailout.
The report quoted a draft assessment report of Cypriot financing needs prepared by the European Commission.
“There is no such issue, nothing of the sort has been discussed and it is not being discussed at present either,” Stylianou pointed out.
The Reuters report said that gold slipped to session lows on Wednesday, followed the Commission document.
The government has concluded a 10 billion euro deal with the Troika of international lenders, which needs to be ratified by national parliaments and the Eurogroup. The Eurogroup reached an agreement with the Cypriot authorities on the key elements necessary for the macroeconomic adjustment programme.
The island’s second largest bank, Cyprus Popular Bank (Laiki), splits into a “good” and a “bad” bank. The bank`s “good” assets are being transferred to the Bank of Cyprus, where a massive haircut is being imposed on uninsured deposits of more than €100,000.