CRISISBOOM

Bullion analyst Mark Robinson says this is the biggest and most ambitious task that China has ever announced.
“If China wants to take its gold reserves to 10,000 tonnes in 10 years, the country needs to buy or acquire the yellow metal to the quantity of nearly 1000 tonnes per year.”

Which countries own the largest quantity of gold reserves right now?

• World leader the United States has 8133 tonnes of gold reserves, accounting for 76.5% of its foreign exchange reserves;
• Germany has the second highest gold reserves at 3412.6 tonnes;
• France has 2508 tonnes of gold constituting 58.7% of its forex assets;
• Italy has 2451.8 tonnes of gold constituting 61.9% of forex reserves;
• China became the fifth biggest holder of gold reserves this April with 1054 tonnes;
• Switzerland has 1040 tonnes of gold reserves constituting 23.8% of total forex reserves;
• India which recently bought 200 tonnes of gold from IMF has 557 tonnes of gold reserves representing 3% of total forex reserves.
• The IMF, which currently holds 3,217 tonnes of gold, is the third-largest official holder of the precious metal, but is not technically a sovereign central bank. The IMF has made gold sales a key element of its new income model aimed at lowering its dependence on lending revenue to cover expenses.