Gold reserve

A gold reserve is the gold held by a central bank or nation intended as a store of value and as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders (e.g., paper money), or trading peers, or to secure a currency.

Today, gold reserves are almost exclusively, albeit rarely, used in the settlement of international transactions.^{[citation needed]}

At the end of 2004, central banks and investment funds held 19% of all above-ground gold as bank reserve assets.^[1] About one percent of all above-ground gold (370 metric tonnes) was mined in the first five years of the California Gold Rush.^[2]

It has been estimated that all the gold mined up to 2006 totaled 158,000 tonnes.^[3] At a price of US$1000/oz., exceeded in 2008 and 2009, one tonne of gold has a value of approx. US$32.15 million. The total value of all gold ever mined would exceed US$5 trillion at that valuation.^{[note 1]}

IMF gold holdings

As of June 2009, the International Monetary Fund held 3,217 tonnes (103.4 million oz.) of gold,^[4][5] which had been constant for several years. In Fall 2009, the IMF announced that it will sell one eighth of its holdings, a maximum of 12,965,649 fine troy ounces (403.3 tonnes) based on a new income model agreed upon in April 2008, and subsequently announce the sale of 200 tonnes to India,^[6] 10 tonnes to Sri Lanka^[7], and 2 tonnes to the Bank of Mauritius.^[8] These gold sales were conducted in stages at prevailing market prices.

The IMF maintains an internal book value of its gold that is far below market value. In 2000, this book value was SDR 35, or about US$47.^[9] An attempt to revalue the gold reserve to today's value has met resistance for different reasons. For example, Canada is against the idea of revaluing the reserve, as it may be a prelude to selling the gold on the open market and therefore depressing gold prices.^[10]

Officially reported gold holdings

The International Monetary Fund regularly maintains statistics of national assets as reported by various countries. This data is used by the World Gold Council to periodically rank and report the gold holding of countries, official organizations, and other private funds.^[11]

The following table reports the results, per 22 September 2005 and 14 December 2007, ranked by their 2005 holdings. Although the United States has the largest reserves of individual countries, in total the eurozone gold holdings are greater (11,065 tonnes as of December 2007). The eurozone numbers in the following table are a double count as they are also included under the individual countries. Additionally, the gold listed for each of the countries in the table may not be physically stored in the country listed, as central banks generally have not allowed independent audits of their reserves.

World official gold holding (November 2009)^[11]

Rank	Country/Organization	Gold (tonnes)	Gold's share of total forex reserves (%)[11]
1	United States	8,133.5	77.4%
2	Germany	3,408.3	69.2%
3	International Monetary Fund	3,005.3	-
4	Italy	2,451.8	66.6%
5	France	2,445.1	70.6%
6	China	1,054.0[12]	1.9%
7	Switzerland	1,040.1	29.1%
8	Japan	765.2	2.3%
9	Russia	639.8[13]	5.1%
10	Netherlands	612.5	59.6%
11	India	557.7[6]	6%
12	European Central Bank	501.4	18.8%
13	Taiwan	423.6	3.9%
14	Spain	416.8	42.5%
15	Portugal	382.5	90.2%
16	Venezuela	363.9	35.5%
17	United Kingdom	310.3	18.7%
18	Lebanon	286.8	30.0%
19	Austria	280.0	50.5%
20	Belgium	227.5	42.5%
21	Algeria	173.6	3.6%
22	Philippines	153.9	12.3%
23	Libya	143.8	4.5%
24	Saudi Arabia	143.0	12.4%
25	Sweden	135.9	14.2%
26	Singapore	127.4	2.2%
27	Bank for International Settlements	125.0	-
28	South Africa	124.7	11.0%
29	Turkey	116.1	4.7%
30	Greece	112.5	92.8%
31	Romania	103.7	8.4%
32	Poland	102.9	5.0%
33	Thailand	87.4	2.2%
34	Australia	79.8	7.3%
35	Kuwait	79.0	11.9%
36	Egypt	75.6	6.4%
37	Indonesia	73.1	4.3%
38	Kazakhstan	72.0	11.6%
39	Denmark	66.5	4.7%
40	Pakistan	65.4	20.3%
41	Argentina	54.7	3.4%
42	Finland	49.1	17.6%
43	Bulgaria	39.9	7.6%
44	West African Economic and Monetary Union	36.5	11.8%
45	Malaysia	36.4	1.2%
46	Slovakia	35.1	81.6%
47	Peru	34.7	3.3%
48	Brazil	33.6	0.5%
49	Bolivia	28.3	10.3%
50	Ecuador	26.3	11.6%
51	Ukraine	26.2	2.0%
52	Syria	25.9	-
53	Morocco	22.0	2.2%
54	Nigeria	21.4	0.9%
55	Belarus	20.3	11.6%
56	Sri Lanka	15.3[7]	3.8%
57	Jordan	14.8	5.2%
58	South Korea	14.3	0.1%
59	Cyprus	13.9	29.7%
60	Czech Republic	13.2	0.9%
61	Netherlands Antilles	13.1	31.4%
62	Cambodia	12.4	12.9%
63	Qatar	12.4	2.6%
64	Serbia	12.2	2.3%
65	Laos	8.1	23.1%
66	Latvia	7.7	3.3%
67	El Salvador	7.3	8.2%
68	Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa	7.1	-
69	Guatemala	6.9	3.9%
70	Colombia	6.9	0.8%
71	Macedonia	6.8	7.6%
72	Tunisia	6.8	2.1%
73	Lithuania	5.8	2.3%
74	Ireland	5.5	16.3%
75	Mongolia	5.2	10.9%
76	Bahrain	4.7	-
77	Mauritius	3.9[8]	2.4%
78	Bangladesh	3.5	1.6%
79	Mexico	3.4	0.1%
80	Canada	3.4	0.2%
81	Slovenia	3.2	7.2%
82	Aruba	3.1	17.1%
83	Hungary	3.1	0.3%
84	Mozambique	3.0	4.6%
85	Kyrgyzstan	2.6	5.3%
86	Luxembourg	2.3	10.8%
87	Albania	2.2	2.6%
88	Hong Kong	2.1	0.0%
89	Iceland	2.0	1.9%
90	Tajikistan	2.0	-
91	Papua New Guinea	2.0	2.1%
92	Trinidad and Tobago	1.9	0.6%
93	Yemen	1.6	0.5%
94	Suriname	1.4	7.0%
95	Cameroon	0.9	-
96	Honduras	0.7	0.7%
97	Paraguay	0.7	0.6%
98	Dominican Republic	0.6	0.7%
99	Gabon	0.4	-
100	Republic of the Congo	0.3	-
101	Chad	0.3	-
102	Central African Republic	0.3	-
103	Uruguay	0.3	0.1%
104	Estonia	0.2	0.1%
105	Chile	0.2	0.0%
106	Malta	0.2	0.8%
107	Costa Rica	0.1	0.0%

Privately held gold

As of October 2009, gold exchange-traded funds held 1,750 tonnes of gold for private and institutional investors.^[14]

Gold Holdings Corp. a publicly listed gold company estimates that the amount of in-ground verified gold resources currently controlled by publicly traded gold companies is roughly 50,000 tonnes.^[15]

See also

• Foreign exchange reserves
• Sovereign wealth fund
• United States Bullion Depository
• Federal Reserve Bank of New York
• Gold as an investment
• Peak Gold
• Strategic Petroleum Reserve
• Moscow gold, the reserves of the Bank of Spain sent to the Soviet Union during the Spanish Civil War.

Notes

1. ^ One tonne is approximately 32150.75 troy ounces

References