Central banks in emerging markets add to their gold holdings

Author: Paul Ploumis27 Jan 2015 Last updated at 06:50:01 GMT

NEW DELHI (Scrap Monster): The central banks in emerging markets reported increased gold activity during the month of December last year. According to the latest data released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), countries including Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus expanded their gold reserves, continuing the trend in recent years. At the same time, Tajikistan and Mozambique offloaded a portion of their gold holdings for cash.

The IMF data released Tuesday indicates that Russia has added another 2% more to its gold stockpile in Dec ’14. The country added nearly 666,500 troy ounces to make its total gold holdings to just under 40 million ounce. Kazakhstan added 2.2% to its reserves to make its total gold holdings at 6.2 million ounces. Meantime, Belarus lifted its central bank gold stockpile by 3.3% to 1.4 million.

The Netherlands increased its gold holdings after a gap of 6 long years. The official gold reserves by the country have increased by 309,000 ounces to total 20 million ounces. Earlier in November, the country’s central bank had stated that it plans to repatriate some of its gold reserves from the US. Malaysia too added nearly 100,000 ounces to its gold holdings during Dec ’14.

On the other hand, central banks of certain other countries reduced their gold reserves, taking advantage of the rise in global bullion prices. The largest cut was reported by Mozambique. The country’s gold holdings saw sharp cut of 15% during the month. Mozambique’s gold reserves stood at nearly 175,000 ounces as on end-Dec ’14. Tajikistan lowered its precious metal holding by almost 11% to 278,000 ounces. Turkey too reported cut in gold holdings by around 124,000 ounces during the month. The Turkish official gold reserves now stand at 17 million ounces, IMF added.

The average gold prices had witnessed a rise of nearly 2.2% from $1,176 per ounce in Nov ‘14 to $1,202 per ounce in Dec ’14.