Unconfirmed reports from Riyadh say that private investors in Saudi Arabia have bought more than SAR13 billion of physical Gold Bullion in the last two weeks (US$3.5bn).
"Many Saudi investors see this as the right time for making Gold Investment as its price is the most reasonable at present," one local gold analyst is quoted by the Gulf News.
The Iranian press reported at the weekend that Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh, a "top advisor" to the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said a portion of Iran's $120bn in foreign currency reserves had been transferred into Gold.
The oil-dependent Opec state does not publish official gold reserves or currency data, but the decision to Buy Gold was made by Ahmadinejad himself according to the Jahan-e-Eghtesad newspaper.
Yesterday the chief of Iran's Geological & Mineral Exploration Organization told the Tehran Daily that 15 tonnes of proven reserves will be added to the country's mining resources by end-March '09.
Current proven Gold Mining reserves stand at 250-300 tonnes, he added, with annual gold production set to rise "long term" to 25 tonnes from the current five.
The pariah state also announced joint-venture exploration outside Iran, starting with the other nine members of the middle-eastern Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
ECO in turn says it has signed gold exploration deals with several African and Latin American states.
Meantime in Washington, "the two top salesmen for the $700 billion financial bailout are in for a grilling by Capitol Hill lawmakers" today, reports the AP, "just one week after the administration officially ditched the original strategy behind the rescue."
US Treasury secretary and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke have already lent and gifted $3.45 trillion in emergency aid to the banking on some estimates, "and that's before a likely handout for the auto industry," notes Tech Ticker.
"The Fed's focus has now shifted from easing the interest rate to increasing the quantity of money," agrees John Kemp at Reuters, noting how total sum of Fed credit extended to private banks jumped in the week-ending Nov. 12th to $2.2 trillion from the previous weekly average of $0.9trn – a clear policy of "quantitative easing".
"As often happens, the 'gold bugs' will turn out to be right in the end," writes Martin Hutchinson at PrudentBear.com, "even if their performance during 2008 has been dreadful.
Pointing to the 64-70% losses suffered by investors following the gold trading and mining-stock tips of Harry Schultz, Howard Ruff and Jim Dines, "for those that survive, 2009 is likely to be a banner year," says Hutchinson.
"The turn from economic decline (but not true deflation) to inflation will be well indicated by the Gold Market, which can expect to surge as the economic bottom is approached."
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