World Gold Council: Gold Holdings by Central Banks Spiked

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The monthly central bank statistics, compiled using IMF IFS statistics and published by the World Gold Council (WGC), suggests addition to official gold reserves by world central banks during the month of April this year, the latest month for which data is available.

As per data, central banks across the world added a net 69.4t to official gold holdings. Five central banks accounted for a major portion of the total gross purchases of 74.1t. The largest buyer was Thailand’s central bank, whose gold purchases totalled 43.5t. In second and third place were Turkey and Uzbekistan with purchases of 13.4t and 8.4t respectively. The other two prominent buyers were Kazakhstan (4.6t) and Kyrgyzstan (3.8t).

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The only gold sellers during the month were Russia and Germany. Russia’s gold reserves dropped by 3.1t in May this year, partly attributed to the country’s coin-minting programme. The coin minting process also resulted in a fall by 1.3t in German gold reserves too, said WGC report.

A survey conducted by the Council indicates that central banks continue to be positive on gold, with almost the same number of central banks expected to buy gold this year. The inclination to gold is mainly on account of gold’s robust performance during times of crisis, it noted.