Bank has enough currency reserves including dollars for the next 13 months but there isnt enough dollars for importers and traders how does that work well the fact is that the central bank does have. Reserves but the situation is actually quite precarious just because weve been actually living with a large budget deficit and very increasing a trade deficit now the inability of the lebanese government to actually attract capital from abroad its putting a lot of pressure on actually deserves so what the central bank is trying to do is actually slow down sort of of its reserves in order to actually contain this situation right now. Is there a trust issue between the banks and the Central Banks or as the Central Bank Governor has suggested dollars should be used inside lebanon and not outside is he suggesting then dollars are being withdrawn and spent in say syria actually did relationship between the Banking Sector and the central bank is actually quite strong in fact its that high level of commitment by the Banking Sector thats actually keeping this in a place thats actually not necessarily by the way a very very good thing on one hand it has avoided a crash whereby lebanon has defied gravity in the sense that the Economic Situation could have been much worse but the fact of the matter that because of this very cozy relationship theyve been able to sustain the budget deficit that the governments actually incurring now this comes at a high cost because it actually benefits the backing sector a lot theyve made a lot of money and a lot of profits to define mentioned engineering as you know they actually hold more than 60 percent of the Government Debt so this relationship in my opinion is actually quite strong and its actually troubling because its too close to comfort in the sense that you know theyve been actually supporting the government but i think the government needs to take certain actions to stop actually borrowing more and more and start taking seriously forms to adjust the Economic Situation and the fiscal situation but what do the Central Bank Governor mean when he said dollars should be used inside lebanon not outside. What im not sure communes by that to be honest i mean the fact of the matter that if there was some rumors going around that the shortage of the dollars actually due to sort of. Money going or dollars going into syria im not so sure thats actually proof to a god i think the problem is much more internal i think were trying to sort of figuring trying or blaming other factors in the me in the heart of the matter is not here going to be 11 has. Always had the capital flow so the fact of the matter and i know were talking about whether the lebanese dollars should be spent inside and not outside is beside the point whats actually telling us thats actually a problem in the country we are actually able to sustain it if we remain at the same or that path and the issue of saying that sending those dollars to c. D. s to me is frankly is a distraction. Have contributed more than 10 percent of g. D. P. Through remittances and that apparently has slowed is there any reason for that. Well indeed the expat and the remittances they send along with what we call nonresident deposits this are key factors and have been key factors in sustaining the economic and fiscal situation and what i mean by that the fact that the Government Central government actually spends way more than it collects and we import more than we export which effectively means that were spending our dollars side of the country to buy fuel we and also the goods. There emmetts is what they do they compensate for that because they bring in the money into the country and this balance actually has worked in favor of lebanon for many many years and whenever we actually have a problem you know lebanon seeks International Support now that eminence is now now actually slowed down a bit and this as a combination of factors you know its the region a situation in the arab world the oil prices at the actually are declining would have declined systematically over the years which means that left with less money to send home and in fact many of the lebanese who live in the g. C. C. Countries actually right now are able to save less and less as it is out of the high cost of living in these countries and what are the chances of a devaluation of the currency or a default on debt look. I would see given how things have developed in the last few months and given the reading has been on the wall in the sense sorry the writing has been on the world for a number of years now whereby you are actually saying that this is not sustainable the chances of a default or or but a devaluation probably has increased but its not in the slot in the situation where all you know were. About to crash no what it actually means were in a very very precarious situation where the government has to take serious decisions the central bank has been doing or taking a many measures to actually prevent that through capital controls or implicit capital control through the Financial Engineering that this has undertaken in the last few years i think now its running more and more out of options because the heart of the problem is going to be in the government in the fiscal deficit and in fact in the trade deficit what the government has to actually decide increasing the pie of the economy sending out a lot good to speak thank you. That would volatile markets trade wars and a growing risk of recession gold is trading at 6 year highs demand for it has never gone away Central Banks jewelers and some of the biggest investors have kept faith with bullion so whats going on and is it too late to start buying gold lets start with that record high in 2011 gold prices hit almost 1900. 00 an ounce after the financial crisis but its led to almost a 1000 in 2016 for the last 6 years its been struggling to rise above 1350. 00 in the last month it made it to 1550 and could push higher how high well in the next 2 years it could hit 2000. 00 according to analysts at citi group well joining me now from london is Alastair Hewitt director of Market Intelligence at the World Gold Council thanks very much for being with us so whats behind golds recent rally them one of the really important drivers of the price gold price over the past 9 months has been lower Interest Rates and lower Interest Rate expectations if we have a look at the us and think about the Federal Reserve 12 months ago people are expected rates to rise but weve seen them cut rates and people are expecting more rate cuts to come but it isnt just the us phenomenon if you look at global Monetary Policy its new system level in the past 10 years and thats robert a big impact on Financial Markets notably in the bond market where weve seen the stock of negative yielding assets reach astronomical levels so thats having a big impact on the gold price the question is why is this happening lots of economies now coming towards the end of an extended period of expansion there are recessionary risks on the horizon Germany China and the us there are many people concerned about the outlook for these economies and thats partly because of the end of the Business Cycle is approaching but its also because of the uncertainty in the world at the moment if you think about. Some of the tensions included trade tensions between the us most of the world but not just the u. S. Youve also got tensions between japan and south korea and of course youve got the bracks debacle as well so all of these factors are combining to lower the opportunity cost of holding gold and thats a pause in the gold price so is this increase in india mom for gold largely a result of the uncertainty in the world right now and the gold is becoming a premium a kind of a safe haven. Its partly that way see in significant inflows into gold backed Exchange Traded funds and thats coming from some of the large Institutional Investors who are looking to hedge against some of the uncertainty in the world right now but its not just coming from that source we have seen incredibly Strong Central Bank demands over recent over recent years and they dont necessarily look at Financial Markets on a day to day basis they buy a motive to more often than not driven by fund driven by Strategic Policy initiatives so those are the factors supporting the gold market at the moment there is a flip side to this the big rally in the gold price has affected some of the large physical gold markets so we think of injury in china the gold prices has risen to record high levels and some of the consumers there actually stepped back theyre holding back for making gold purchases until the price drops to a more for a more affordable level so were seeing is that usual investors and blushed Central Banks supporting the gold price movements upwards but we seem relatively weak consumer demand in some of the major gobind countries such as china and india and what do you think is behind that decision by russia and china to increase their holdings. So in the case of russia as i mentioned earlier Central Banks are often quite strategic in their approach and often its not whats happened in the world today but a result of a policy decision made by policymakers in the case of russia theres been quite a Clear Strategy of detail around zation which theyve talked about on. Loss over the course of the past few years and that is involved d reducing their Dollar Holdings of dollar assets and increasing exposure to the euro to remember and also increasing their exposure to gold and thats been a very significant driver of the large goal that weve seen coming out from russia and whats been interesting is when they talked about it theyve made reference to some of the geopolitical tensions i talked about iran so in russia people are concerned about sanction risk and the potential of global tensions to escalate into real sanctions and gold as a financial asset that can be held outside of the Financial System actually helps them manage some of that risk. So do you think gold prices can go any further then i mean do you think we could be looking at 2000. 00 an ounce so im not going to make a forecast on the gold price but i do get us these kind of questions a lot probably the most common question is whats the big case for gold what could actually see the gold price fall over the coming months and if you think about it in that way take a bit of Scenario Analysis that can help inform investors judgments in terms of what they think are going to be happening with gold and other asset prices so for gold to come down from its recent recent high levels youd probably be expecting to see Interest Rate rises for us to see Interest Rate rises youre probably going to need to see a stronger economy youre going to need to see u. S. And germany and china banks in back from the front of the loans that theyre entering into and youre probably going to need to see some of the trade uncertainty in the Geopolitical Uncertainty fades away youre going to need to see u. S. China trade tensions resolved youre going to need to see grex it resolves now for an investor out there and they need to think about that type of scenario and compare the likelihood of that happening to the likelihood of us continuing down the path were continuing town at the moment and i think that can help inform investors decisions about where the gold price is going to go but the one thing this is brought home to many investors is that gold isnt just a tactical asset to be bought in times of uncertainty its actually a very sensible course strategic investment through asset owners and investors to have within their portfolio all of the time Alastair Hewitt thanks very much thank you its been a pleasure. And that is our show for this recruit member you can get in touch with us by tweeting me at and to use the hash tag a. J. C. You see when you do or drop us an email counting the cost of aljazeera dot net is our address and theres more for you online at c. N. N. Dot com slash c. T. C. That will take you straight to a page which has individual reports and links and entire episodes for you catch up on. So thats it for this edition of count unit cost and hasnt for the whole team here thanks for joining us the news on aljazeera is next. You responding 6 continents across the globe. Aljazeera is correspondent live in bringing the story so they can have it was not in the box theres something thats missing out. Were at the mercy of the russian camp for palestinian back to aljazeera food in world news. Syrian allies have begun an advance on the strategic city of man bridge which the found to take from a force us. Live from doha everyone im Kemal Santa Maria this is the world news from aljazeera the latest moves in the impeachment investigation against donald trump the u. S. President s former top advisor on russia and europe is testifying on capitol hill. My government intends to work towards a new partnership with the European Union. When elizabeth lays out the u. K. Governments plans for the new parliamentary session and of course its brags that topping the list. Brazils government tries to clean up an oil spill thats polluted a vast area of its world and coast. With something in northeastern syria where it has been a day of fast moving developments as turkeys offensive into co. Held territory escalates Syrian Government forces now appear to be positioning themselves for a direct confrontation with turkish troops with reports that they are due to advance toward the city of mandates president reject typer one has also indicated this offensive will intensify in the coming days this report from charles stratford. Smoke rises over the Northern Syrian town of russell i mean the Turkish Defense ministry declared victory over the kurdish s. D. F. Forces for a 2nd time here on monday kurdish fighters have put up fierce resistance and these are syrian soldiers in the town of tama just a few kilometers away after a deal was made between the sdn from the Syrian Government state media said the army would confront turkish aggression the turkish president remained defiant. Were not going to enter man beach the real owners of that area are arabic brothers and they are going to enter that area our approach to this is that they are going to enter there and we are going to make it secure for them. The syrian kurds have made deals with damascus before especially in the battle against eisel but an s. D. F. Commander said they were faced with a difficult choice this time there was little trust between the 2 science but the s. D. F. Quickly suffered significant losses during battles with Turkish Forces and the syrian rebel allies its an important deal because the kurds and the on assad regime and damascus both have the same enemies they have turkey as their enemy number one and the islamist rebel groups as their enemy number 2 this is a long standing. You know in a sense i would say partnership but its not an easy partnership that theyve had damascus cannot rule northeast syria without the kurds. Tookey says this military campaign is targeting the s. T. s main Kurdish Fighting force which it says is aligned with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or p k k which has been fighting the turkish government for decades. Turkey says it wants to set up a safe haven for refugees to return to Northern Syria but the u. N. Says around half a 1000000 people could be forced from their homes if the violence doesnt stop. U. S. Defense secretary marcus spur says a deal with the s. D. F. In damascus meant having u. S. Forces start between the syrian turkish armys was tenable the syrian army has moved north to potentially could front Turkish Forces at various points close to the border the s. D. F. Hope that by teaming up with the Syrian Military they can force Turkish Forces to retreat where this stage that seems highly unlikely despite the threat of potential sanctions from some European Countries and the u. S. President or the one says he has a plan for Northern Syria and no amount of threats are going to stop him from achieving his goal chance Strafford Al Jazeera close to the turkish Syrian Border as they know what is there as well as chuckle a on that border area so the turkish president says nothing would stop them from achieving its goal is going to push further and however the resistance comes now in the form of the Syrian Government. Yes they opened the new front the Syrian Opposition the National Army the rebels who are backed by the turkish government to 3 hours ago they announced that they are now planning to capture members as they have found them but they are facing resistance now members under the control of the kurdish Led Syrian Democratic forces but there are some reports that the syrian army is on the ground as well there so far unconfirmed reports but so theyre facing resistance and the very big question is what about the role of the u. S. Military what we understand and believe is that the u. S. Military is still present in and around members their presence in one way or another deterred both the turkish government and the Syrian Government from advancing on members to take control of the town they were stationed on the bridge where the Syrian Government troops were amassing late yesterday so the situation is very fluid on the ground now the Syrian Government wants to lay claim and fill the vacuum that has been left by by American Forces but but there is the main player in the syrian conflict and that is russia and what we understand that russia is in contact with a number of parties the Turkish Defense minister saying that he held a phone conversation with his russian counterpart counterpart so that the discussions were constructive and they were coordinating so the biggest question is is russia trying to coordinate an orderly withdrawal or an orderly handover of territory in this northeastern corner of syria to avoid further conflict. To state the obvious say no but this is getting extremely complicated isnt it all these different players i mean syria has always had so many different players involved but what starts as a solito because difference of is wide and in a matter of. Everyone laying claim to the north east of the country an area rich in oil the bread basket of syria which was under the control of the Syrian Democratic forces and they and the United States the u. S. Decides to pull out theyve lost influence and leverage in syria in syria now it is something of course russia and the damascus government will welcome they have long complained that the u. S. Presence is illegal and they should leave but damascus also wants to see the turkish government leave Northern Syria but i have to make clear these areas are under the control of Syrian Rebels allied with the turkish government but at the end of the day russia needs turkey because without turkey you cant push put and cannot push ahead with the political process what he wants is a political settlement to end the war in order for the damascus government to be recognized by the International Community for funds to pour in to rebuild towns and cities so he needs in one way to accommodate president or the gun so a lot of backdoor dealings as this whole corner of syria is being divided up but i have to point out the very fact that the Syrian Government yes theyve returned to the northeast of the country for the 1st time since 2013 but the areas where they have returned to live on a main highway 30 kilometers deep and that really is the perimeter that the Turkish Forces and their allies wanted to reach to create the safe zone so its really you know raises the question is there some sort of a deal that this will be the front line so a lot of questions unanswered fast moving developments on the ground a very fluid situation thank you for that xenophobia in our chocolate well as in related to us forces are now stationed at a bridge that connects northeast and northwest syria across the Euphrates River the bridge is part of the main and for highway which links man beach and. Come to that the middle east for vehicles and spotted there it is believe theyre trying to prevent Syrian Government forces from crossing. Now president of trumpets suggested the kurdish led forces may be freeing eisel fighters as a way to draw the us into the battle in Northern Syria this is his tweet kurds may be releasing some to get us involved easily recaptured by turkey or european nations from where many came but they should move quickly big sanctions on turkey coming to people really think we would go we should go to war with nato member turkey never ending wars will end and weve all said the e. U. s Foreign Policy chief federica condemning it turkeys advance into syria and raising concerns about the rise of eisel in the region their conclusions we call for a ministerial meeting. Of the Global Coalition because we see as one of the most immediate consequences of this military to it is in the northeast of syria the fact that. Refined its briefing space inside that territory that worries us and normally this is a direct Security Threat to the European Union not only to the European Union 1st and foremost to the region and you can National Community so we want to see. This tackled in the Global Coalition format. So the news in irans president Hassan Rouhani says u. S. Sanctions have failed to bring his countrys economy down during a News Conference ronnies that iran will continue scaling back its commitments to the 2050 nuclear deal until the e. U. Fulfills its promises he also said the government is trying to reduce its reliance on oil revenues more on that speech with us a bigger correspondent in tehran. Well president Hassan Rouhani discussing domestic issues is very much for the audience here in iran he very much staked his reputation on the nuclear deal the 2015 nuclear deal which the United States unilaterally poor diet of last year and people they have has been a sense of apathy and anger because he staked his reputation on this deal deal essentially fell through with the United States putting starting their maximum Pressure Campaign and the economy has suffered now what hes saying now is that the economy is stabilizing that the currency is stabilizing and employment levels are Getting Better so what hes saying is that america hasnt been successful and this is hes essentially talking to the iranian people the voters because there are elections expected next year but also the criticism that he has faced at home from hardliners that from the very beginning warned him and warned the people around him that they shouldnt be negotiating with the United States that the United States couldnt be trusted and theyve now been proven to be correct but also criticisms towards him because the hardliners in this country are saying that you went into this deal you negotiated with the United States and look what it scotus. There have been protests in barcelona over the sentencing of 9 separatist leaders whove been sent to prison for their role in the regions failed bid for independence Rail Services were briefly suspended due to the demonstrations the Supreme Court delivered sentences of between 9 and 13 years in prison but the former catalonian vice president. Given 13 years for the crime of sedition. Reporting now from. The overreaction expected there was an angry outpouring. Of the sentencing. Where people decided to congregate and. Points up the city center of barcelona if you look behind me here theyve cut off 2 of the main arteries in the City Center One of the roads that you see is actually one of the ones that leads to the airport now they met in the city Center Thousands of. Took either the train or went by. Towards the airport where there is a huge group of them now essentially blockaded one of the buildings and still they are turning up because people go by and speaking to people here as well they say this particular demonstration here they will go by foot