Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- Japanese will return to gold... - Tofir, 08.03.2002, 22:39
- Passend dazu... - Tofir, 09.03.2002, 00:13
Passend dazu...
TOKYO, Mar 06, 2002 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- Kakuko Arai at first could not decide what to do with the cash she obtained by selling her
house after her husband died last year.
She ruled out time deposits at banks because financial institutions seemed unstable, but thought stocks could also be risky since their
prices are plunging. So she decided to turn some of her money into gold.
"I`m afraid the banks would collapse, and I don`t know too much about financial products," said the 61-year-old, who bought two
one-kilogram bars of gold for about 2.7 million yen at a store in Tokyo`s Ginza district.
"At least with gold, I know it will not become worthless, whatever happens," she said.
Many Japanese investors worried about the health of Japanese banks and the government`s plan to scrap a blanket guarantee on bank
deposits on April 1 are making the same choice as Arai, causing a bit of a gold rush in the nation.
In 2001, gold sales for investors in Japan increased about 24% from the previous year to 64 tons, according to the World Gold Council.
(WGC). The surge is continuing, with sales reaching 10 tons just in the month of January and 25 tons predicted for February, the WGC
said.
"People are obviously buying gold to prepare for the end of the guarantee," said Itsuo Toshima, WGC`s regional director.
"We`ve seen other `gold booms` in the past, but it`s different this time. They`re not looking for short-term profits. They`re looking for a
secure place to put their money," he said.
Under the government`s plan, time deposits will be protected only up to 10 million yen if a bank fails, although money in ordinary
accounts will be fully protected for one more year through March 2003.
The buying frenzy for gold has caused a surge in prices. The price for gold at Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo, a leading precious metal trading
company, topped 1,300 yen per gram in early February -- the highest level since October 1998.
"A major difference from the other `booms` in the past is that people are buying gold even though the price is rising," said Hitoshi Kosai,
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo`s general manager for the precious metals division.
Kosai said he thinks that although various other factors made investors think about turning their paper assets into gold, the nearing of
the lifting of the blanket guarantee was the"final trigger" for Japanese investors.
"First you had the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, then the collapse of Enron Corp.," Kosai said, referring to the severe blow
on money management funds (MMFs) -- the equivalent of money market funds in the United States -- dealt by the sudden failure of the
U.S. energy giant.
"But the nearing of the end of the full guarantee made people really think about buying gold," he said."This phenomenon is not seen
anywhere else in the world at the moment."
WGC`s Toshima predicted that the trend will continue, and that the sales of the precious metal may rise sharply once again when the
government lifts the refund guarantee for ordinary deposits in April next year.
"I`m sure there are people out there who moved their money from time deposits to ordinary deposits for this year," Toshima said."These
people may think of buying gold in the second stage."
Meanwhile, there are signs that some Japanese seeking safe havens are turning to other non-paper assets.
Sales of jewelry and art objects in January rose 27% and 13% respectively from the year before at Mitsukoshi Ltd.`s main store in
Nihombashi, said Kazuo Aoki, general manager at Mitsukoshi`s corporate communications office.
Many of the items, such as diamonds and paintings, were priced at several millions of yen, Aoki said.
"Although it`s difficult to say clearly about why our customers are buying such items, we think the end of the blanket guarantee could be
one reason behind the trend," he said.
(EDS: THIS IS THE SECOND OF FIVE NEWS FOCUS STORIES ON THE IMPACT OF THE IMMINENT SCRAPPING OF A BLANKET
GUARANTEE ON DEPOSITS AT FAILED BANKS)
By Naoko Aoki
2002 Kyodo News (c) Established 1945
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Auch die Japaner merken, dass Jen Noten bunt bedrucktes Papier sind. Und dass es immer mehr davon gibt!!!
Gruss
tofir
<center>
<HR>
</center>
Thread gesperrtgesamter Thread:
