The audit of its gold reserves vaulted at the Bank of England that last week was reported being planned by the Austrian central bank has been conducted and was part of a routine series of audits by the bank and its results will not be made public, a bank spokesman said today. The bank spokesman, Christian Gutlederer, commented in response to an inquiry by the German freelance financial journalist Lars Schall.
By Chris Powell
The following item was originally published by the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee here.
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
The audit of its gold reserves vaulted at the Bank of England that last week was reported being planned by the Austrian central bank —
http://www.gata.org/node/14031
— has been conducted and was part of a routine series of audits by the bank and its results will not be made public, a bank spokesman said today.
The bank spokesman, Christian Gutlederer, commented in response to an inquiry by the German freelance financial journalist Lars Schall.
In addition to inquiring about the gold audit, Schall asked if the Austrian central bank would be publishing a list of the serial numbers of its gold bars, but the bank spokesman did not acknowledge the question.
Like most central banks, the Austrian central bank has a history of refusing to answer questions involving its gold reserves. Schall has tried with the bank before:
http://www.larsschall.com/2012/12/04/austrian-central-bank-declines-to-answer-gold-questions/.
Today’s reply to Schall from the Austrian central bank spokesman is appended.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
* * *
May 28, 2014
Dear Mr. Schall:
In response to your e-mail here my answer.
The Austrian Central Bank has conducted regular audits of its gold reserves in the past as well. Our latest audit is part of this routine. We do not intend to publish details of that audit.
As for the news media reports, I can just guess. Trend is a monthly magazine and was published ahead of the audit. The audit took place last week.
Kind regards.
Christian Gutlederer
Communications Division
Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Vienna, Austria
