WB chief calls for gold to anchor forex movements
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
SINGAPORE, Nov 8 (AFP): World Bank (WB) president Robert Zoellick has called on bickering G20 nations to bring gold back into the global monetary system as an anchor to guide currency movements.
Ahead of a G20 summit this week in Seoul, Zoellick wrote in Monday's Financial Times that an updated gold standard could contribute to retooling the world economy at a time of tensions over currencies and US monetary policy.
Zoellick said the world needed a new regime to succeed what he called the "Bretton Woods II" system of floating currencies, which has been in place since the fixed-rate currency system linked to gold broke down in 1971.
"Although textbooks may view gold as the old money, markets are using gold as an alternative monetary asset today," Zoellick wrote in a commentary for the FT.
Ahead of a G20 summit this week in Seoul, Zoellick wrote in Monday's Financial Times that an updated gold standard could contribute to retooling the world economy at a time of tensions over currencies and US monetary policy.
Zoellick said the world needed a new regime to succeed what he called the "Bretton Woods II" system of floating currencies, which has been in place since the fixed-rate currency system linked to gold broke down in 1971.
"Although textbooks may view gold as the old money, markets are using gold as an alternative monetary asset today," Zoellick wrote in a commentary for the FT.