"...Last year, central banks purchased more than 400 tons of gold, the most in nearly five decades, according to the World Gold Council. IMF data shows that central banks were again net buyers in April with Turkey and Philippines being the largest buyers of gold.
The Philippines increased their gold holdings significantly by 32.13 tons to 194.241 tons in March - a 17% increase in their gold reserves in the month.
It was the single largest addition Philippines has made since September 2008. They have been pretty consistent buyers of gold over the last few years, but the 17% increase in April was another big rise.
Turkey expanded its gold reserves by 29.7 metric tons in April, putting their bullion reserves at 239.3 tons meaning that Turkey increased their gold reserves by 14% in April. The central bank also doubled the share of lira reserves banks can hold in gold to 20%.
Mexico increased gold holdings by 2.92 tons to 125.5 tons in April.
Kazakhstan raised gold holdings by 2.02 tons to 98.19 tons in April.
Ukraine upped gold reserves by 1.4 tons to 30.607 tons in April.
Sri Lanka raised gold reserves by 2.177 tons to 7.807 tons in January.
In July, South Korea, the world's seventh largest forex reserves holder, reportedly bought 16 tons of gold. And, Russia has consistently added god to their holdings almost every month.
While the gold tonnage demand from central banks in recent months has been significant, gold remains a tiny fraction of their foreign exchange reserves and therefore the trend is sustainable and indeed may accelerate.
Central banks are buying gold because they see it as sound money. Price is not a determining factor in central bank buying. They are more likely being guided to allocate a percentage of their overall foreign exchange reserves into gold bullion.
In the meantime, as central banks continue to increase their holdings of gold, China remains very secretive, so we don't know really if they're buying or not. However, I am positive the Chinese government is accumulating as much gold as they can. And, we are also seeing more Chinese invest in gold bullion bars and coins."
I am sure they know what is coming.
AI
