The stock of gold held by central banks worldwide is approaching the historic highs of the post-war Bretton Woods era. Gold reserves, which peaked at 38,000 tonnes in the mid-1960s, rose again to reach 36,000 tonnes in 2024.
Turkey, India and China have been the top buyers, jointly purchasing over 600 tonnes of gold since end-2021. Despite ranking among the top holders in absolute terms with 2,294.5 tonnes of gold, China’s gold made up just under 7 per cent of its total reserves as of April, according to the World Gold Council. Even so, the composition is expected to change further in favour of gold and at the expense of US dollar holdings.
Remember this article? Aparantly, the Chinese government might in actuality own more gold than even the Americans (about 14000 to 15000 tonnes), which would place central bank gold reserves well above the 1960s numbers (38,000 tonnes) vs (50,000 to 51,000 tonnes today). Of course, this depends entirely on how much gold reserves the Chinese government secretly owns, and aparantly, the Chinese army owns gold that it doesn’t have to declare.
Remember this article? Aparantly, the Chinese government might in actuality own more gold than even the Americans (about 14000 to 15000 tonnes), which would place central bank gold reserves well above the 1960s numbers (38,000 tonnes) vs (50,000 to 51,000 tonnes today). Of course, this depends entirely on how much gold reserves the Chinese government secretly owns, and aparantly, the Chinese army owns gold that it doesn’t have to declare.