International financial statistics has some interesting news up their sleeves. The reports have come up with a fact that the biggest hoarders of gold are some of the most advanced nations in the globe.
The stats obtained last year reveal that gold demand reached a great height of 3756.1 metric tons which accounted for nearly $170 billion. The World Gold Council said that the demands were down from the previous year as there was heavy outflows in exchange-traded funds and similar products, however bar and coin demand surged to 28% because the investors were much keen on having hard assets.
With gold prices registering their first annual loss in more than a decade, the central banks bought 368.9 tons of gold back in the year in 2013. This was above the five year average of 282.6 tons.
The top ten nations enlisted as the largest holder of gold reserves involve India, Netherlands, Japan, Russia, China, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany and the United States.
United States, the world’s largest economy holds 8133.5 tons of gold, despite ending the gold standards in 1971. This represents approximately 71% of the reserves.
India, the tenth largest economy in the world officially boasts of 557.7 tons of gold, representing 7.6% of its reserves. India had purchased 200 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund for $6.7 billion which marked IMF’s first big chunk sale in more than a decade. According to the stats obtained, India is the second largest consumer of gold in the world and it is also a big believer in silver too. It consumes more silver than any other country.
