Top 10 Countries with Largest Gold Reserves

Gold is a precious metal that has always been considered as a safe investment. Though gold prices have fallen from the beginning of 2013, it has always caught everyone’s attention. Over the past few years, the prices have increased alarmingly. Irrespective of its price, the demand for gold is always high. There are a lot of countries that are currently digging to get this valued metal. Of all these countries, only a few of them are able to produce a good quantity of gold.

Top 10 Countries with Largest Gold Reserves

Keeping all this in mind let us have a look at the Top 10 Countries with the Largest Gold Reserves.

10. India

India holds around 557.7 tonnes of gold worth $32 billion at current prices. This represents 9.6% of the overall foreign reserves. India is among the top 10 countries with the largest gold reserves.

Indian being a highly populous country, you can find the number of gold buyers also very high. Apparently, the government thinks that the increase in gold imports is increasing the current account deficit. Thus it is trying its best to prevent people from buying more gold.

9. The Netherlands

The Netherland Bank not only manages the national monetary thing including gold holdings. It has around 612.5 tonnes of gold worth $35 billion at current prices. Since the gold reserves represent 58.7 % of the total foreign reserves, the country considers only gold as the saving grace at the time of crisis.

8. Japan

Bank of Japan holds around 765.2 tonnes of gold worth $45 billion at current prices. These gold holdings account for 3.1% of the overall foreign reserves. In 2011, Bank of Japan sold gold for yen 20 trillion to calm down the investors after the major tsunami and nuclear disaster.

7. Russia

Russia holds the seventh position among the countries with the largest gold reserves. Central bank of Russian Federation is handling 976.9 tonnes of gold that are worth $50 billion at current prices. According to the World Gold Council, this represents 9.5 % of the total foreign reserves of the country. In 2009, Russia produced extra 21% of gold and in 2010 more 24%. In 2011, iteven made plans to buy extra 100 tonnes recreate the country’s reserves.

6. Switzerland

Swiss National Bank of Switzerland looks after the country’s monetary factor and also handles the gold. It holds around 1041.1 tonnes of gold worth $62 billion at current prices. This accounts for 10 percent of the total foreign serves. According to the reports, in 2012 the country’s gold reserves reached a quarter of the overall foreign reserves.

5. China

Being considered as the most populous country, China falls in the fifth position among the list of countries with largest gold reserves.
The People’s Bank of China holds 1054.1 tonnes of gold, which represents 1.6 percent of the total foreign reserves. Zijin Mining Group is the largest mining company in China. Gold analysts estimate China to have more than 2000 tonnes of gold reserves.

4. France

French National Bank, Banque De France, hold 2435.4 tonnes of gold worth $146 billion at current prices. These gold holdings represent 69.5% of the total foreign reserves. There are reports that France sold 572 tonnes of gold under the Central Bank Gold Agreement. Outside the agreement, in 2004 it moved 17 tonnes of gold to the Bank of International Settlements with the name of purchasing BIS shares.

3. Italy

Italy is considered to be third among the countries producing largest gold reserves. The Italian Central Bank -Banca D’Italia, holds 2451.8 tonnes of gold worth $89.92 billion at current prices. These gold holdings represent around 71.3% of the total foreign reserves. In the PIIGS list of Euro-zone countries, Italy was considered to use up the gold reserves to raise some funds during the crisis.

2. Germany

Second among the countries with the largest gold reserves is Germany.  The country’s Deutsche Bundesbank has reported that it has 3,391.3 tonnes of gold, which represents 72.1 percent of the total foreign reserves. Overall gold in Germany is worth around $125.01 billion at current prices. The bank currently stores 31 percent of the gold reserves, but in future it is intending to store around half of the gold reserves within the country and store the remaining half in New York and London.

1. United States of America

United States of America (US) tops the list of top 10 countries with the largest gold reserves. Total production of gold is around 230 metric tons and it has the overall gold holdings of 8133.5 tonnes, which is 75.1% of the total foreign reserves. Newmont Mining is the biggest mining company in US that has delivered over 4.98 million ounces of gold in the year 2012. It is responsible for the mining operation in five continents including two of North American continents.

Conclusion:

With the outbreak of the recent gold fever, we hope that with this article on Top 10 Countries with the Largest Gold Reserves we have been able to shed some light on the countries that own most of the gold. Please feel free to add your valuable comments in the Comments sections.