By: Sharda Prashad

When the G20 meet in London on April 2—a “make or break event” according to George Soros—the sale of a portion of the International Monetary Fund’s gold holdings will be on the agenda, according to Reuters.  Leaders will contemplate using proceeds from the gold sales to double funding to poor nations, “which need help dealing with the global economic crisis,” a source familiar with the plan told Reuters on Sunday. The source also said there was not unanimous support for the deal, even within the IMF, because of the low-interest generated from lending to poor nations, and the speed at which that money will make it to these nations remains to be seen.

Last year, the IMF approved the sale 403 tonnes of gold—it has 103.4 million ounces and is one of the largest holders of gold in the world—in order to create an endowment and put itself in a better financial position. In the past, the IMF has said gold sales would be made under the central bank gold agreement to avoid disruption of the market.

The sale of gold by the IMF can take several months because it requires ratification by member countries. Thus, its plans to sell gold won’t be part of any near term plan to help with the economic crisis. An overview of the IMF’s policies on gold can be found here.

Since I’m a new blogger on Canadian Business Online, I thought readers might be interested in checking out some of my articles.  Here are a few from recent issues of Canadian Business:

April 13, 2009:  Business Fraud:  Two bad pennies
March 30, 2009:  The good, the bad and the ugly: The magnificent seven
March 30, 2009:  Emerging Markets:  The Brazilian play
March 16, 2009:  Investing:  Into Africa
March 2, 2009:  Recession strategy:  The playbook
March 2, 2009:  Visionary leaders