Vietnam central bank wants to outlaw gold trading

Submitted by cpowell on 05:32AM ET Monday, February 28, 2011. Section: Daily Dispatches

By Nguyen Pham Muoi
Dow Jones Newswires
via The Wall Street Journal
Monday, February 28, 2011

"The State Bank of Vietnam in the second quarter will request that the government issue a decree on management of gold trading, aiming to control imports and exports of gold and to ban the trading of gold bullion in the free market," the state-run Vietnam News Agency said.

"Trading of gold bullion is seen only in Vietnam but not in other countries," it said. "It is bad for the economy because (the country) has to import gold, which causes trade deficits."

The elimination of gold bullion trading is "necessary and timely," as the government is rolling out measures to tame inflation and stabilize macroeconomic conditions, it said.