UNITED STATES May 22 2014 10:15 AM

NEW YORK (Scrap Register): Global central banks are likely to remain net buyers of gold, said Deutsche Bank in a research note.

Deutsche Bank noted that renewal of a gold-sales agreement among European central banks, announced at the start of the week, attracted much attention.

Signatories specified they have no plans to sell significant amounts of gold, although they decided not to include the 400-metric-ton annual limit on sales.

“As it was academic anyway, argue many, it was probably deemed unnecessary to include it. However, some perhaps over-cautious gold skeptics have questioned the move -- if it was academic, it would have done no harm to leave the limit in place,” said the firm.

Globally, central banks have been net buyers of gold bullion in recent years. In fact, Deutsche Bank points out that just recently, the Ukrainian National Bank announced that part of a $17 billion International Monetary Fund bailout loan would be dedicated to the purchase of gold and foreign currency reserves.

“The baseline expectation, in our opinion, should therefore be that central banks globally will rather remain net buyers of the yellow metal,” Deutsche Bank concluded.