Central Banks Buying Gold “Firmly” in 2014

GOLD BUYING by central banks has continued ahead of recent averages in 2014, according to several analysts’ notes.

“Central banks remained firmly on the buy-side of the gold market” in the first half of the year, writes Macquarie Bank analyst Matthew Turner in London.

Based on official gold bullion reserves as reported to the International Monetary Fund, Turner notes that his net figure of 113 tonnes for central bank gold-buying in H1 does not account for a 14-tonne drop in Ecuador’s holdings – withdrawn as part of a Dollars for gold swap with US investment bank Goldman Sachs, and set to be unwound with the gold bars returned in two years’ time.

“The Ecuador-Goldman Sachs deal,” agrees another London-based analyst, “simply reiterates that gold is a highly liquid asset that can readily be converted into cash.” A similar deal with the same bank was last year begun but dropped by the socialist government of Venezuela, which under the late Hugo Chavez withdrew its gold bullion reserves from London’s international trading center in what commentators called an attempt to “guard against” US seizure or interference with the Latin American state’s assets overseas.

Read More here.