Iranians have more gold at home than CBI has in reserve
Officials of the administration of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad published contradictory statistics about the gold reserve of Iranian Central Bank (CBI). According to the statistics, the actual reserve was 5-6 times smaller than the stated reserves. In September 2010, former CBI governor Mahmoud Bahmani announced that the country had embarked on buying gold as the rise of global gold prices was anticipated. At the same time, he said Iran had enough of gold reserve for 15 years. Although he did not refer to any specific figure about the gold reserve at the CBI, but said that the country’s annual gold consumption was 30-35 tons, meaning that the CBI gold reserve was about 450 tons. However, a year later, Bahmani told IRNA that the CBI gold reserve was 500 tons. In 2007, gold was traded at $650 per ounce and the price rose to $1870 in 2011. After the Ahmadinejad administration’s incumbency, the CBI put the country’s gold reserve at just 95 tons in 2011. Prese