Tag Archive: World Gold Council

The Changing Role of Gold

2021-08-20

by

2021-08-20

In our post on August 11 titled End of an ERA: The Bretton Woods System and Gold Standard Exchange, we discussed the significance of then-President Nixon’s action of closing the gold window thereby ending the Bretton Woods Monetary system. Under the Bretton Woods monetary system, central banks could exchange their US dollar reserves for gold. This also ended the gold fixed price of US$35 per ounce. This week we explore the two...

Read More »

ETF Gold Demand Soars while Consumer Demand Slows

2021-03-19

by

2021-03-19

ETF gold demand from investors has soared over the past year. The unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus were rolled out to tackle the effects of Covid -19. However, consumer demand, particularly but not surprisingly, jewellery demand slumped.

Read More »

Does the recent spate of Central Bank gold buying impact demand and price?

2018-11-05

by

2018-11-05

There has been a lot of media coverage recently about the re-emergence of central bank gold buying and the overall larger quantity of gold than central banks as a group have been buying recently compared to previous years. For example, according to the World Gold Council’s Gold Demand Trends for Q3 2018, net purchases of gold by central banks in the third quarter of this year were 22% higher than Q3 2017, and the highest quarterly level since Q4 of...

Read More »

Annual Mine Supply of Gold: Does it Matter?

2018-08-21

by

2018-08-21

Cumulative Global Gold Production: 1835 to present day.
The topic of how much extractable gold is left in the world has become increasingly discussed within the last few years. This is because of increased focus on ‘peak gold’ and also a concern about remaining levels of unextracted gold reserves. Peak gold is a term referring to the phenomenon of annual gold mining supply peaking (i.e. the rate of gold extraction increases until it peaks at maximum gold output and subsequently diminishes).

Read More »

New Gold-Backed Debit Card Launched In Partnership With MasterCard

2017-11-23

by

2017-11-23

Mobile Phone
In recent years, there has been a major debate about the respective merits of gold versus Bitcoin, even though many, not all, gold bulls are also supporters of the latter. Gold advocates generally view favourably Bitcoin’s inherent characteristics of decentralisation, finite supply and ability to operate (so far) outside of the usual interference by western central banks.

Read More »

Neck and Neck: Russian and Chinese Official Gold Reserves

2017-10-17

by

2017-10-17

Russian Central Bank Gold Reserves, 1994 - 2016
Official gold reserve updates from the Russian and Chinese central banks are probably one of the more closely watched metrics in the gold world. After the US, Germany, Italy and France, the sovereign gold holdings of China and Russia are the world’s 5th and 6th largest. And with the gold reserves ‘official figures’ of the US, Germany, Italy and France being essentially static, the only numbers worth watching are those of China and Russia.

Read More »

Millennials Can Punt On Bitcoin, Own Gold and Silver For Long Term

2017-07-23

by

2017-07-23

BTC Versus Gold Volatility
Bitcoin volatility shows not currency or safe haven but speculation. Volatility still very high in bitcoin and crypto currencies (see charts). Bitcoin fell 25% over weekend; Recent high of $3,000 fell to below $1,900. Bitcoin least volatile of cryptos, around 75% annualised volatility. Gold much more stable at just 10% annualised volatility.

Read More »

Bank of England releases new data on its gold vault holdings

2017-05-04

by

2017-05-04

An article in February on BullionStar’s website titled “A Chink of Light into London’s Gold Vaults?” discussed an upcoming development in the London Gold Market, namely that both the Bank of England (BoE) and the commercial gold vault providers in London planned to begin publishing regular data on the quantity of physical gold actually stored in their gold vaults.

Read More »

Sweden’s Gold Reserves: 10,000 gold bars (pet rocks) shrouded in Official Secrecy

2017-04-28

by

2017-04-28

In February 2017 while preparing for a presentation in Gothenburg about central bank gold, I emailed Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, enquiring whether the Riksbank physically audits Sweden’s gold and whether it would provide me with a gold bar weight list of Sweden’s gold reserves (gold bar holdings). The Swedish official gold reserves are significant and amount to 125.7 tonnes, making the Swedish nation the world’s 28th largest official gold...

Read More »

The Great Physical Gold Supply & Demand Illusion

2016-10-21

by

2016-10-21

Numerous consultancy firms around the world, for example Thomson Reuters GFMS, Metals Focus, the World Gold Council and CPM Group, provide physical gold supply and demand statistics, accompanied by an analysis of these statistics in relation to the price of gold. As part of their analysis the firms present supply and demand balances that show how much gold is sold and bought globally, subdivided in several categories. It’s widely assumed these...

Read More »

Spectacular Chinese Gold Demand Fully Denied By GFMS And Mainstream Media

2016-08-18

by

2016-08-18

In the Gold Survey 2016 report by GFMS that covers the global gold market for calendar year 2015 Chinese gold consumption was assessed at 867 tonnes. As Chinese wholesale demand, measured by withdrawals from Shanghai Gold Exchange designated vaults, accounted for 2,596 tonnes in 2015 the difference reached an extraordinary peak for the year.

Read More »

Chinese Gold Demand 973 tonnes in H1 2016, Nomura SGE Withdrawals Chart False

2016-07-08

by

2016-07-08

Chinese wholesale gold demand, as measured by withdrawals from the vaults of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), reached a sizable 973 metric tonnes in the first half of 2016, down 7 % compared to last year.

Read More »

Venezuela’s Gold Reserves Plunge To Lowest Ever As Maduro Repays Debt With Gold

2016-05-29

by

2016-05-29

Several months ago, as Venezuela's hyperinflating, imploding economy was spinning in freefall, leading to the dramatic episodes of total social collapse such as those profiled in "Scenes From The Venezuela Apocalypse: "Countless Wounded" After 5,000 ...

Read More »

How Venezuela Exported 12.5 Tonnes Of Gold To Switzerland On March 8

2016-03-19

by

2016-03-19

Submitted by Ronan Manly of Bullionstar Blogs Following on from last month in which BullionStar’s Koos Jansen broke the news that Venezuela had sent almost 36 tonnes of its gold reserves to Switzerland at the beginning of the year, “Venezuela Exporte...

Read More »