For many countries, the Article IV report is the most thorough and professional evaluation of the country's economy and economic policies. As such, it provides a valuable service for the smaller members of the Fund. I hope the new decision does not significantly reduce the scope and depth of Article IV reports for such countries.
Importantly, gold has often worked as a ‘safe haven’, a hedge against tail risk.11 This is also well documented in the literature.12 To mention but one familiar example, in 2022, a financially turbulent year, gold outperformed all the other major investible asset classes with the exception of cash, showing a return close to zero (in dollars) while everything else was deeply negative: specifically, global bonds lost 16 per cent,13 and global equity around 14 per cent,14 of their respective values.