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Investing.com – Central banks around the world increased their gold stocks by 77 tons in August 2023, bringing the total official reserves to 35,683 thousand tons.
At the same time, China topped the list of the world’s largest gold-producing countries in 2022, producing 330 tons, or 11% of global production, with expectations that gold production will rise this year, which may exceed the record level recorded in 2018 at 3,300 tons. According to the World Gold Council.
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China… intense purchases
According to the report issued by the World Gold Council, China, Poland and Turkey were among the large countries that made notable purchases last August.
Central bank purchases recorded an increase of 38% in August compared to July.
During the three months ending in August 2023, total net purchases by central banks amounted to 219 tons, clearly exceeding the total sales in April and May, which amounted to 96 tons.
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Gold remains a strong demand as a safe haven in times of crises, in light of the escalating economic effects resulting from the Russian-Ukrainian war, but it faces pressure from time to time as a result of raising interest rates and the rise in US prices.
The Gold Council report said that central banks have continued interest in buying gold in the long term.
The report added: “The recent purchasing operations show that we have passed the period in which we witnessed large selling operations from Turkey in April and May. The number of banks wishing to purchase appears to be limited, as the People’s Bank of China shows superiority in gold purchases, as it added 29 tons during the month, reaching… China’s total annual purchases reach 155 tons.
China’s official gold holdings increased to 2,165 tons at the end of August, representing more than 4% of total reserves.
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Central banks increase their holdings
Meanwhile, the Polish Central Bank purchased 14.9 tons in August, bringing its total ownership of gold to 314 tons, representing 10.8% of total foreign reserves.
The central bank also added 15 tons to its gold reserves in August, as it continues its efforts to rebuild its reserves after strong sales earlier, bringing its total holding to 417.3 tons.
Other buyers included the Central Bank of Uzbekistan (9 tons), the Reserve Bank of India (2 tons), the Czech Central Bank (2 tons), Singapore (2 tons) and the Central Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (1 tons).
The Russian Central Bank also announced an increase of 3 tons in its gold reserves in August, bringing its ownership of gold back to levels at the beginning of the year at 2,333 tons, which represents 25% of its total reserves.
The report stated, “Central banks’ buying of gold is still alive and well. Even when accounting for net sales earlier this year, the pace of buying so far this year shows that we are on our way to another strong annual total.”
The United States ranks first with about 8,133 tons of gold, followed by Germany with 3,353 tons, then the International Monetary Fund with 2,814 tons, then Italy with 2,452 tons, and finally France with 2,437 tons.
2023-10-06 10:05:00
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