Official gold reserves

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 IMF gold reserves
2 Privately held gold
3 Official reported gold reserves
4 See also
5 References and external links

Gold ingots, like these from the Bank of Sweden, form the base of many monetary systems

Gold reserves (or gold holdings) are held by central banks as a store of value. At the end of 2004 central banks and official organizations held 19 percent of all above ground gold as a reserve asset. ^[1] In 2001, it was estimated that all the gold ever mined totalled 145,000 tonnes. ^[2] As one metric tonne equals 1,000 kilograms (or 32,150 troy ounces), this equated to a value of US$3 trillion in April 2006. ^[3] For comparison, the entire global market capitalization for all stock markets was US$43.6 trillion in March 2006. About one percent of all above ground gold (370 metric tonnes) was mined in the first five years of the California Gold Rush (worth approximately US$7.2 billion at November 2006 prices).^[4]

[edit] IMF gold reserves

IMF gold reserves refers to 3,217 tonnes of gold held by the International Monetary Fund. It is currently priced at a range of $40 and $50 a troy ounce ($1,300 to $1,600/kg), a price that was fixed in the 1970s before the Nixon government stopped pegging the U.S. dollar to the gold and instead allowed market forces to set the dollar's worth. An attempt to revalue the gold reserve to today's value has met resistance for different reasons. For example, Canada, a major gold producer, is against the idea of revaluing the reserve, as it would flood the market with gold and therefore depress its price. ^[5] It is also not clear whether the gold reserve is the property of the IMF or of member countries.

Three quarters of the gold reserve was contributed by G5 members, namely France, Germany, Japan, United States and United Kingdom.

[edit] Privately held gold

As of January 2007, gold exchange-traded funds held 629 tonnes of gold in total for private and institutional investors. In 2004, it was estimated that the Indian public held 13,000 tonnes of gold in jewelry or other forms. ^[6]

[edit] Official reported gold reserves

As of 22 September 2005, the largest gold holdings in tonnes as reported by the World Gold Council can be seen on the table below [1]. The United States holding of gold is worth approximately US$164 billion (December 2006)

1	United States	8,133.5
2	Germany	3,427.8
3	International Monetary Fund	3,217.3
4	France	2,892.6
5	Italy	2,451.8
6	Switzerland	1,290.1
7	Japan	765.2
8	Netherlands	722.4
9	European Central Bank	719.9
10	China, Mainland	600.0
11	Spain	493.3
12	Taiwan	423.3
13	Portugal	407.5
14	Russia	386.6
15	India	357.7
16	Venezuela	357.4
17	United Kingdom	311.3
18	Austria	307.5
19	Lebanon	286.8
20	Belgium	227.7
21	Philippines	187.9
22	Bank for International Settlements	185.3
23	Algeria	173.6
24	Sweden	155.4
25	Libya	143.8
26	Saudi Arabia	143.0
27	Singapore	127.4
28	South Africa	123.9
29	Turkey	116.1
30	Greece	107.9
31	Romania	104.9
32	Poland	102.9
33	Indonesia	96.5
34	Thailand	84.0
35	Australia	79.7
36	Kuwait	79.0
37	Egypt	75.6
38	Denmark	66.5
39	Pakistan	65.3
40	Kazakhstan	58.6