Repatriating Romania's gold reserve would cost 10-20 times more than storing it (BNR)

Repatriating Romania's gold reserve would cost 10-20 times more than the commission paid to the Bank of England for storing it there, said, on Tuesday, the Governor of the National Bank of Romania (BNR), Mugur Isarescu, in a press conference. "We will respect the law, the vote of the Parliament. But we sent our point of view, to the Government, to the Parliament, and we showed the true costs of repatriation, because in the public many statements were made and many untrue things were waved around. Both on costs and on the gold in London, what other countries are doing. Once more, we say: We have done nothing more than what other countries have done. And if they repatriated their gold from abroad, from London or New York, and reached the ratio that we have: 50 pct at home, 50 pct abroad," Isarescu said. According to him, the transport costs are very high, especially those regarding insurance. "It costs us much more than the reasonable commission the Bank of England asks, if we keep there. It costs us 10-20 times more. And I believe that our colleagues from the select directorate were quite timid in saying all the costs. There are very high insurance costs for any transport of precious metals. The transport from the middle of London to Heathrow costs us very much, if we were to bring it by plane," the head of the central bank mentioned. Finally, Parliament will be the one to decide, Isarescu added. President Klaus Iohannis sent to Parliament, on November 20, a re-examination request of the law initiated by Liviu Dragnea and Serban Nicolae that mandated the repatriation of the gold reserve of the National Bank of Romania. The National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR) contested this law at the Constitutional Court, but their actions were rejected.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florentina Cernat, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Maria Voican)