Countries with the largest gold reserves in the world

In recent days, the world gold price has continuously set historical peaks, at one point reaching 2,164 USD per ounce. This price far surpasses the previous record of 2,135 USD in December 2023. Analysts say that the active hoarding activities of central banks are one of the reasons for the increase in gold prices.

In its Gold Demand Trends 2023 Report released on January 31, the World Gold Council (WGC) said that the total volume of gold traded globally last year reached 4,899 tons, of which central banks purchased more than 1,000 tons in 2022-2023. This is the second consecutive year that this group has purchased more than 1,000 tons of gold.

Using data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the WGC recently published a list of countries with the world's largest gold reserves, as of the end of 2023.

The United States tops the list with a total of 8,133 tons. The US gold reserves are almost equal to the next three countries combined. This amount of gold is currently worth about 543 billion USD, mainly stored in the Fort Knox gold vault and the gold vaults at the New York Fed.

Following are three European representatives, including Germany, Italy and France, with reserves ranging from 2,400 to 3,300 tons of gold. Of which, the amount of gold held by France has remained almost unchanged over the past few years.

Europe is the most represented country on the list, with six countries. Asia also has three countries in the top 10. Of these, China's reserves at the end of last year were $2.235 trillion, nearly three times that of India and Japan.

The WGC believes that gold is an important component of central bank reserves worldwide, thanks to its safety, high liquidity and profitability. These are the three basic investment objectives of central banks. Therefore, these agencies are also the world's largest gold holders, accounting for 20% of the gold mined globally to date.

Many analysts also believe that central bank demand is a key factor helping the precious metal maintain its $2,000 support level over the past few months.

"I think central banks will continue to buy gold. It makes less sense to hold other countries' currencies in a world that is polarized and uncertain," Ryan McIntyre, director of asset management firm Sprott, said in a recent interview with Kitco News.

However, most of the top 10 countries with the largest gold reserves did not add to their holdings in the fourth quarter. The exceptions were China, India and Russia. The Russian central bank has recently increased its gold holdings to diversify its assets away from the US dollar. This has accelerated since the war in Ukraine.

India is the world's second-largest gold consumer in 2022. China is also a major player in the market, both in terms of production, consumption and reserves.

While its two neighbors added just 3 tons of gold last quarter, China bought 22 tons. Last year, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) was the world's largest gold buyer, buying 225 tons.

The PBOC’s latest report also showed that the agency has purchased gold for 16 consecutive months, bringing the current total to 2,257 tons. However, the value of this gold only accounts for 4% of the agency’s total reserves. Therefore, the PBOC is expected to continue buying in the near future.

On TRT World, Louis Kuijs - chief economist for the Asia-Pacific region at S&P Global Ratings explained: "The PBOC may be concerned about global economic and political instability. They also want to reduce their dependence on the USD, in the context of increasing tensions with the US in the past few years."

NT (according to VnExpress)

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