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Mexico ramps up gold reserves at dollar’s expense
* Mexico ups gold reserves by over 90 tonnes in two months
* Mexic onow ranks 33 among official holders of gold (Changes dateline, pvs LONDON; adds comment, details)
By Dave Graham
The price of gold has risen by 11% this yearMEXICO CITY, May 4 (Reuters) – Mexico massively ramped up its gold reserves in the first quarter of this year, buying over $4 billion of bullion as emerging economies move away from the ailing U.S. dollar, which has dipped to 2-1/2-year lows.
The third biggest one-off purchase of gold by any country over the past decade took Mexico’s reserves to 100.15 tonnes — or 3.22 million ounces — by the end of March from just 6.84 tonnes at the end of January, according to the International Monetary Fund and Mexico’s central bank.
Gold has gained 11 percent this year, driven by concern over euro zone debt and the violence in the Arab world, as well as by the U.S. dollar’s 7.6 percent decline against a basket of currencies .DXY.
Sergio Martin, chief economist for HSBC in Mexico, said the government probably saw gold as a highly liquid asset that would reduce exposure to the falling greenback.
“They’re probably thinking that getting out of dollars and into gold makes sense because we know that the dollar has some trend to depreciate in the near future at least,” said Martin. “I don’t think they’re going to lose money Read more…
Chinese Know Real Value
The International Monetary Fund reported without fanfare recently its projection that the candidate who wins the 2012 U.S. presidential election will be the last U.S. President to lead the world’s richest super power.
The IMF prediction is based on its calculation that within the next five years China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest economy.
The IMF forecast differs from that of most traditional forecasts, which put the date China’s economy outstrips the U.S. at least a decade or two into the future. However, those traditional forecasters are looking at value as calculated in currency—and as we at WealthCycles.com have reiterated many times, currency lies.
University of Texas’s Gold Buy Is a Game-Changer
Over the weekend, an announcement was made that the University of Texas endowment fund had decided to take delivery of $1 billion worth of gold. This was an absolutely huge development on multiple fronts.
First, the UT endowment fund’s gold purchase was a radical deviation from the standard institutional portfolio, the possibility of which we have considered for some time. Since UT has about $20 billion in assets, a $1 billion gold allocation would indicate 5% of its assets in gold. The standard institutional allocation to gold is 1%; a 5% allocation is a huge increase. If (or in our opinion, when) other institutions adopt a similar stance, the price of gold will skyrocket.
Second, the endowment’s purchase of this large an amount of gold gives a huge vote of confidence to gold and precious metals as an investment. For the past few years, financial media has lined up “experts” to tell us all about how gold is an irrational and poor investment, including figures as large as Warren Buffett’s right hand man, Charlie Munger.
Well, the UT endowment fund is neither dumb nor stupid, and it helps that it’s not poor: It’s well-funded institutional investors who are making a tactical investment decision, not a short-term trade. As Kyle Bass, the hedge fund manager who advised UT to purchase the gold, explained, the gold was purchased as a hedge against Read more…
China Buys 47% of the World’s Gold
Rampant inflation is driving Chinese consumers to buy gold on a massive scale…
In fact China is already set to buy almost half of all the gold that’ll be mined this year.
You read that right: The Chinese may buy nearly 50% of total world gold production in 2011.
This incredible demand will no doubt put significant strain on global supplies.
Today I want to talk about how this soaring demand may be the catalyst that pushes gold prices over the $1,500 level in as little as a few weeks.
Over 1.3 billion inflation-nervous Chinese eye gold
In January 2010, China recorded an inflation rate of 1.5%. But just 12 months later, the rate of Chinese inflation has climbed to 4.9%.
Rising inflation has sent food and property prices in China skyrocketing.
The price of food in China, for instance, has increased 10.3% on an annual basis; grain saw an increase of 15.1% and fruit is up 34.8% since January of last year:

China’s rising inflation stems from the $585 billion economic stimulus package its leaders pushed through in the depths of the financial crisis two years ago.
In dollar terms, China’s stimulus was much smaller than the $800 billion package the U.S. created. But it was much larger as a percentage of the Read more…






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