Russia will not fully open gold market till mid-98
MOSCOW, June 17 (Reuter) - Russia will not fully liberalise its gold market before mid-1998 and has no plans now to open up its platinum group metals market in the future, a Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.
Vladimir Rybkin, head of the ministry's precious metals and stones section, said by telephone that Moscow would pass laws by the middle of next year to lift restrictions on the bullion market, with the aim of reversing a decline in gold production.
``Today, we have only some of the documents which will liberalise the market ready,'' he said. ``It is just a beginning.
``But we consider that the system for selling platinum group metals should stay as it is.''
Russia has been talking for months about actively opening up its bullion market by allowing domestic commercial banks to export gold freely and to do hedging, futures and forward deals. But the statements have not been backed up by substantive legislative changes.
Rybkin said other changes would involve the Central Bank, not the Finance Ministry, setting gold and silver prices.
Industry officials have said Russian gold output may fall to 100 tonnes this year from last year's variously-estimated 100-124 tonnes. As of April 20, the Central Bank held 397 tonnes of gold, while the government held an additional 24.8 tonnes
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