ASTANA – Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey continue increasing gold reserves, The Washington Post and Bloomberg reported on Dec. 21, citing the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
For Kazakhstan, November has been the 38th straight month maintaining an upward trajectory in gold reserves. The country increased its reserves from 6.69 million ounces in October to 7.03 million ounces in November.
“The buying trend will continue,” Analyst at Barclays Plc Feifei Li said as quoted by The Washington Post with Bloomberg by e-mail before the data was released. According to Li, emerging market countries such as Russia, China and Kazakhstan “have a long-term need to increase their reserves due to portfolio and strategic reasons.”
The newspaper noted, “Central banks and other institutions boosted bullion purchases in the third quarter to the second highest on record to diversify their assets, according to the World Gold Council. Kazakhstan has about 27 percent of its reserves in gold, while Russia has 13 percent and China about 2 percent. Top holder U.S. has 73 percent of its reserves in the metal, council data show. Bullion for immediate delivery sank to $1,046.44 an ounce on Dec. 3, the lowest since February 2010, and was at $1,077.95 on Tuesday, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. Gold doesn’t pay interest, damping its allure at a time of rising borrowing costs.”
According to open sources, it has been estimated that all the gold mined by the end of 2011 totalled 171,300 tonnes; one tonne of gold has a value of approximately $48.2 million.
As of December, the U.S. has the world’s highest gold reserves at 8.1 million tonnes, followed by Germany with 3.3 million. The IMF has 2.8 million, and both Italy and France are at 2.4 million. Kazakhstan is in the 23rd place with 216.300 tonnes.
