Central Banks Increased Gold Stocks by 10% Since 2008 Crash

Central banks have boosted their gold stocks by almost 10% since the financial crash, reflecting its renewed attractiveness as a safe haven in an environment of uncertainty and low or negative interest rates.

China and Russia have led the switch to gold away from foreign currencies, especially the US dollar, to shore up their reserves. Western nations, including the UK, have halted several decades of mass sell-offs.

According to the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), central banks have swooped on the gold markets every year since 2008 to become net bullion buyers, adding more than 2,800 tonnes, or 9.4%, to reserves.

Britain has one of the smallest holdings of gold in the G7 at 0.9% in 2016 while the US has the largest after increasing its share from 24.5% to 24.8% between 2000 and 2016. In 1980, the US had 44.1% of all gold stocks and 75.7% in 1940.

“Developed countries [accounting for the lion’s share of total official holdings] have been conserving stocks, while developing countries led by China and Russia have been building them up.

“This is the longest protracted spell of gold accruals since 1950-65, when central banks and treasuries acquired a net total of more than 7,000 tonnes during the economic recovery after the second world war,” said David Marsh, the director of OMFIF.

via The Guardian

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza