Monitor: South African comment on the effect of the collapse in the gold market

TONY BLAIR's announcement to sell gold followed the International Monetary Fund's plan to unload gold to help relieve the debts of the world's poorest countries. The tragedy is that the plan will damage some of the economies it was designed to help. But the panic has begun and the price of gold cannot be saved from it. Dealers talk of a resurgence but it seems unlikely. The rediscovered alliance of capital, government and unions will have to find more productive uses for our labour.

Daily Dispatch

WE, TOGETHER with the other nation states, are not in a position even to determine the value of our currency, nor our most valuable asset, gold. Surely, the situation confronting the vast majority of humanity demands a more concerted endeavour to achieve a just international social order that protects and enhances the interests and aspirations of the poor and powerless.

The Star

THERE HAS been quite a bit of eye-rolling in recent weeks. For goodness sake, who can claim not to have been forewarned about the Bank of England's gold sales, which have further driven down the value of the metal that still makes up an unhealthily large part of our foreign earnings? Aren't we publicly committed, anyway, to reducing the part played by gold in our economy by increasing the role of manufacturing and other sectors?

The Mail & Guardian

WHATEVER THE fundamentals say, the bullion market is unlikely to recover until the spectre of heavy official sales is exorcised. And that could take years. This does not preclude temporary rallies, of which there have been many in the past twenty years - some of them substantial. But it is ironic that the main beneficiaries of the England Prime Minister Tony Blair's planned largesse for underdeveloped nations should be the arch- capitalist speculators, while the main sufferers are precisely those of the underdeveloped nations that rely heavily on gold production.

Financial Mail