A survey for the World Gold Council found that just 4% of people in Italy would back plans to sell the nation’s gold reserves according to Bloomberg.
Some 52% of citizens and 61% of business people would support the use of the nation’s gold reserves to reduce debt costs, the World Gold Council said. The study by Ipsos MORI surveyed 1,009 Italian citizens aged 16-70 and 300 business leaders.

Whether to sell Italy’s national gold reserves is an interesting question. A perhaps as interesting question and more important question in the light of the Troika expropriation of bank deposits is will Italians begin to diversify some of their savings in Italian banks into gold bullion?
The answer is almost certainly yes and the recent trickle of Italian money flowing into gold bullion, including into vaults in Switzerland, is likely to become something far more substantial in the coming weeks.
Capital flows out of periphery European banks and into gold has been quite low up until now but with deposits not safe now in the European Union that is likely to change and gold is likely to be one of the beneficiaries of the huge uncertainty that the Troika has managed to create about the banks in many European countries. [Read more...]