The Cypriot Finance Minister has signaled that the government intends to sell part of its gold reserves within the next months, a decision that could stoke the already frustrated markets.
"The exact details will be formulated in due course primarily by the board of the central bank," Harris Georgiades, finance minister of Cyprus, told Bloomberg News on Wednesday.
Cyprus has to sell its "excess" gold reserves to raise 400 billion euros to finance part of its EU-IMF bailout fund, according to an April debt assessment by the European Commission.
However, the Central Bank of Cyprus said in response that it wasn`t considering a sale. The government won`t be able to sell gold unless the central bank approved such a move.
Bullion markets suffered a heavy rout, and remained under pressure on speculations of the Cyprus gold sale with prices hitting their lowest in two years of $1,321.44 on April 16.
As of 14:13 GMT+3, bullion traded around $1,376.34, compared with the opening price of $1,369.59. The precious metal has lost nearly 15 percent of its value since April 12.