Peru Says it Held Talks With Mexico on Silver

The heads of the central banks of Mexico and Peru have met in Mexico city to coordinate actions aimed at consolidating the upward trend in the price of silver, the official newspaper El Peruano said.

It said that Peruvian central bank president Leonel Figueroa met yesterday with the president of the bank of Mexico, Miguel Mancera Aguayo. Peru, which froze new sales of refined silver and its government-marketed silver ore on tuesday, is the world’s second biggest producer of the precious metal. Mexico is the largest producer.

Together, the two nations account for nearly 40 pct of the world’s silver output, the official paper El Peruano said.

Peru adopted the move on tuesday in an bid to stablilise the price of silver bullion, which has climbed in a month from about 5.70 dlrs an ounce to over 9.00 dlrs an ounce today.

After the meeting of the Peruvian and Mexican central bank heads, it was understood that Mexico might diversify the use of silver, El Peruano said.

It said that Mexico and Peru did not want to speculate with the price of silver. Instead, they aimed to see that the price of the precious metal recuperated to adequate levels.

El peruano did not specify what these levels were.

El peruano quoted energy and mines minister Wilfredo Huayta as saying that Peru did not want to participate in speculative operations with silver.

He said the government’s aim was to avoid a “brutal fall” in the price of silver.

Figueroa’s office confirmed the Peruvian central bank president had travelled to mexico city. It was not certain if he had returned to Lima by midday today.