Turkey: so it IS gold for gas after all | beyondbrics

One of the strangest recent developments in Turkey has been gold sales to Iran, which have soared, so helping improve the country’s trade and balance of payments figures.

Thanks to this phenomenon, Turkey, traditionally a net importer of the metal, has racked up net gold exports of $5.5bn off the back of total gold exports of some $13bn so far this year, as Gunay Elif Girgin at Oyak Securities in Istanbul pointed out to beyondbrics.

And although direct sales to Iran itself have plummeted in recent months, that dive has coincided with a big jump in sales to the UAE, a traditional Iranian entrepot, leaving very little doubt about the ingots’ ultimate destination.

* username: rupertbu