Central Bank’s Auction of Gold Reserves
Following the rise in coin prices, the Central Bank, under the pretext of trying to control prices, decided to offer 500,000 quarter coins in the commodity exchange starting Saturday, January 14th this year. Initially, this action was not without effect, to the extent that the announcement of this news caused a decrease in the coin market, and the quarter coin was sold with a 700,000 Toman reduction in price. However, this leverage ultimately failed to reduce the coin price in the long term, to the point where this coin was priced at about 7,750,000 Tomans on the day of the offering and is now being sold for 9,600,000 Tomans. Each quarter coin weighs 2.033 grams, and therefore, considering that 500,000 of these coins are to be offered in the exchange, it can be concluded that about one ton of gold will be used for this offering. This means the Central Bank is auctioning off the country’s gold reserves under the pretext of price control, although it seems more likely that the Central Bank is also seeking to absorb liquidity through this means.