News, Rumors and Opinions Tuesday 11-24-2020
TNT:
Harambe: Bloomberg: Zimbabwe Gold Smugglers Estimated to Ship $1.5 Billion a Year
(11/24:20)
More than $1.5 billion of gold is smuggled out of Zimbabwe every year, depriving the cash-strapped economy of crucial foreign-exchange revenues, according to research organization International Crisis Group.
The gold is illegally shipped from the southern African nation’s small-scale mines, often to the bullion-trading hub of Dubai, ICG said in a report Tuesday. Some of those artisanal mines are plagued by violent gangs that have political connections, it said.
Smuggling is flourishing under a Zimbabwean law that forces miners to sell their precious metal to a unit of the central bank, which pays for gold 70% in dollars. The balance comes in local currency, which is not only worthless outside the country but is paid at an official rate that’s well below black market levels.
“Zimbabwe’s centralized gold-buying scheme underpays producers, a practice that encourages smuggling and erodes industrial mining profits, leading companies to close mines,” ICG said. “Idle industrial mines become targets for intrusion by artisanal miners.”
Payments to small-scale miners are “considerably lower” than the spot price of gold, pushing them to look for more lucrative markets, according to ICG. The organization didn’t say how it estimated the size of illegal gold shipments.
Zimbabwe’s mining sector is key to rebooting an economy suffering from acute shortages of fuel and food, as well as dollars. Official gold exports fell 23% to less than $700 million in the first 10 months of this year as output slumped, according to central bank figures.
“As government, we are working to minimize the costs of smuggling,” said Deputy Minister of Mines Polite Kambamura.
Minister of Home Affairs Kazembe Kazembe told the state-owned Chronicle newspaper in September that gold smuggling could amount to at least $100 million a month. Kazembe didn’t respond to calls seeking a comment.
Harambe: VNExpress: Vietnam cuts dollar buying rate for first time in 12 months
(11/24/20)
The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) reduced its dollar buying rate to VND23,125 Tuesday, down VND50 from Monday.
This was the first such reduction in the last 12 months. The buying rate of VND23,175 per dollar had not been adjusted since November 29, 2019.
The move came as commercial banks were rushing to sell dollars to the central bank to earn profits from the high buying rate. The SBV had bought up VND30 trillion ($1.29 billion) in foreign currencies from commercial banks from November 9-13.
At the state-owned Vietcombank, the dollar buying rate was up VND10 over Monday to VND23,040 and its selling rate was VND23,250.
At Vietinbank, one of Vietnam’s three biggest lenders, the dollar buying rate dropped by VND7 to VND23,021. Its selling rate was VND23,251.
The SBV offered the selling price of VND23,813 per dollar Tuesday, down VND7 from Monday.
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Tishwash: Al-Kazemi's advisor announces a tentative date for approving the 2021 budget
The Economic Adviser to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, revealed, on Tuesday, the reasons for the delay in sending the 2021 budget to Parliament, likely to be approved in next (this) December.
Saleh said, "Reorganizing and examining expenditures for the next fiscal year, especially the operational ones, and adopting accurate and fast means to maximize non-oil revenues, as well as adopting mechanisms for managing the deficit and reducing it to the lowest level of financing in a manner that does not affect financial sustainability in the future and according to the available financial space." All of them are factors that necessitated thinking about with different efforts, methods and visions, and for a longer time compared to the conditions of stable financial years. "
He stated, "The new visions take the problems of stagnant demand in the oil markets and the level of growth in the global economy, which is still under closure due to the Corona pandemic."
He added, "Despite this, the preparation of the draft federal budget law for the year 2021 is on the verge of completion." It is likely that "next December will be the month that ends with the discussion and legislation of the budget law."
He continued, "In the event that the new fiscal year is entered without being approved in the House of Representatives, the expenditures and revenues sections will be dealt with according to the provisions of the applicable financial management law. link
Tuesday Fleming Update
Fleming: Our military intel contact confirmed Mr. Fleming’s sources that the Iraqi Dinar has a live international rate now on bank screens (he has been asked not to discuss rates because the start is NEAR); he confirmed Mr. Fleming’s sources that the redemption centers are open all week and will either be closed on the USA’s Thanksgiving Day Thu 26 Nov & start up again on Black Friday 27 Nov, or redemption centers will be open for limited hours also on Thu 26 Nov;
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Courtesy of Dinar Guru
Frank26 ...the white papers do have the exchange rate. But there's something else that Guru Walkingstick and I have been saying also has the new rate in it...the 2021 budget...the 2021 budget is mainly for parliament...And the white papers are for the international world. And both of them in my opinion contain the rate...The outside world - international investors - they get to see what the BIS is showing them. And that would be the white papers. The rate I believe is in both of these and they're being shown to the appropriate people...
Petra BIS is the Bank of International Settlement. They're the central bank of all central banks. It is the lead bank in the world. Their responsibility is to distribute the currency rates around the world to all the central banks...they work very tightly with the IMF and the World Bank. They are also involved in investing. I hope you all caught that article from Thursday or Friday highlighting their interest in Iraq. The big question one has to ask is - Why would the BIS be interested in investing in Iraq that is currency under Article 14 because they have not change their currency rate?
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Iraq Gov't Collecting Signatures To Remove CBI GOV
Currency365: Nov 24, 2020