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.
 Reuter
