The IMF has announced its gold reserves declined to 2,966.4 in April from 2,981.5 tonnes in March, a 15.1 ton decline. And while the IMF sold well over half a billion worth of gold in April, Russia was once again taking advantage of what some are calling firesale prices, bulking up its gold holdings by 5 tonnes, which increased from 663.7 to 668.7. Russia has now been adding gold every month since February. As has long been known, in 2009 the IMF announced it would sell 403.3 tonnes of gold, of which 212 was purchased in prearranged deals by India, Mauritius and Sri Lanka. This means the IMF, after accounting for all disclosed sales, has 152.1 tonnes of gold left to sell from its original quota. Bloomberg discloses who has been doing the most buying recently: “Central banks and governments added 425.4 tons last year to 30,116.9 tons, the most since 1964 and the first expansion since 1988, data from the World Gold Council show. Official reserves may expand by another 192 to 289 tons this year, according to CPM Group, a research and asset-management company in New York.” Keep your eyes on Russia: “Russia’s central bank bought 142.9 tons of gold last year, raising its holdings of the metal by 29%, RIA Novosti reported last month, citing Bank Rossii’s annual report submitted to parliament.”
Gold is taking the news in stride.
