These Are the Countries That Control the World’s Gold

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
These Are the Countries That Control the World’s Gold

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The World Gold Council has just reported its figures for the first half of the year. It breaks its data into jewelry, gold used for industrial purposes, gold as an investment and gold held by central banks. Total demand was up 1,833.1 tonnes. This metric measurement translates to 1.1 U.S. tons.

Among central banks, buying grew by 333 tonnes. The U.S. central bank remained the largest holder by far at 8,133 tonnes. It was followed by Germany at 3,359. The International Monetary Fund was third at 2,814. The new report stated: “Global central bank net buying reached 200t in Q2. Large-scale purchases by Thailand, Hungary and Brazil drove the growth in global gold reserves.”
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Reuters recently pointed out:

As gold carries no credit or counterparty risks, it serves as a source of trust in a country, and in all economic environments, making it one of the most crucial reserve assets worldwide, alongside government bonds.

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These are the countries that control the world’s gold:

  • United States, 8,133.5 tonnes
  • Germany, 3,359.1 tonnes
  • International Monetary Fund, 2,814.0 tonnes
  • Italy, 2,451.8 tonnes
  • France, 2,436.3 tonnes
  • Russian Federation, 2,292.3 tonnes
  • China, 1,948.3 tonnes
  • Switzerland, 1,040.0 tonnes
  • Japan, 846.0 tonnes
  • India, 705.6 tonnes
  • Netherlands, 612.5 tonnes
  • European Central Bank, 504.8 tonnes
  • Taiwan, 423.6 tonnes
  • Turkey, 408.2 tonnes
  • Kazakhstan, 385.9 tonnes
  • Portugal, 382.6 tonnes
  • Uzbekistan, 358.0 tonnes
  • Saudi Arabia, 323.1 tonnes

Click here to see why the demand for gold is lagging.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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