IMF Dictates Terms: Gold

Gold price may fall for a second week on the fear that the International Monetary Fund, which holds 2.1 percent of the world's bullion, will sell its gold to finance a reduction of poor countries' debt.

A survey of Bloomberg.com shows that fourteen of 33 traders, investors and analysts from Sydney to New York on Feb. 3 and Feb. 4 advised selling gold, which fell 2.8 percent last week. Eight recommended buying the precious metal and 11 were neutral.

Last week U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown called on the Group of Seven industrialized nations to agree to revalue the IMF's gold reserves. U.S. Treasury Undersecretary John Taylor said some G7 finance ministers were not convinced selling gold is the best way to deal with the world's debt.

?Gold continues looking weak with talks and rumors about IMF gold sales weighing on market sentiment,'' said Alexander Zumpfe, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Frankfurt. ? This together with a stronger dollar should keep the metal under pressure.''

Gold futures for April delivery fell to $415.90 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange?s Comex division, the first weekly decline in a month.