Gold Rush Starts Ahead Of Govt Deposit Guarantee Cap
Tuesday, January 22, 2002
TOKYO (Nikkei)--Individual investors are withdrawing funds from their bank accounts to buy gold, months
ahead of the government's April imposition of a 10 million yen deposit guarantee cap.
Gold bullion sales last month trebled or quadrupled year-earlier levels, and sales have accelerated this month.
Fueled also by the yen's recent weakness, the domestic gold price has hit a three-year high, indicating a
veritable gold rush.
Nonferrous metal smelter Mitsubishi Materials Corp. (5711) had four times as much retail gold sales last
month as in December 2000, and expects to double December 2001's figure this month.
Bullion trading house Tokuriki Tonten Co. estimates it had already topped last month's sales as of Friday.
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. (5713) reports that 80% of phone inquiries for gold bullion this year have been
from new customers.
Sharp increases in sales have been seen in rural regions with traditionally high savings rates.
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo KK group, Japan's biggest bullion seller, reports that sales this month at its 130
outlets nationwide are in line to rise fivefold from last January's level.
Gold sales in Japan in the last four months of 2001 totaled 21 metric tons, or 50% more than a year earlier,
according to the World Gold Council, which attributes the increase to insecurity following the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in the U.S.
The 2001 figure is expected to be the highest in Japan since the 139 tons sold in 1995, when gold sales were
spurred by both the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the failure of jusen home mortgage lenders.
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Tuesday morning edition)
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