This Reutuers news item got quite a bit of attention on a number of alternative media sites today. Austria is planning to move a significant part of its gold reserves back to Austria. We will have to see if this has any significant impact on the gold market. Below is the news article from Reuters.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Austria's central bank plans to repatriate some of its gold reserves from Britain after facing criticism for storing too much of the precious metal abroad, the Krone newspaper reported on Friday without naming any sources for the information.
Officials at the Austrian National Bank (OeNB) were not immediately available for comment.
The OeNB in February rejected criticism of its gold storage policy by the country's Court of Audit and insisted that keeping the bulk of reserves in London was in the country's best interests, but also said a policy review was under way.
The central bank, which administers Austria's 280 tonnes of gold reserves, had argued it makes sense to store gold where it can be traded if need be, which made London a logical place given its role as an international market for the metal.
Austrian gold reserves have been unchanged since 2007, according to the OeNB's 2013 annual report, which says around 80 percent is kept in Britain, 17 percent in Austria and 3 percent in Switzerland.
Krone said in the future 50 percent would be kept in Austria, 30 percent in Britain and 20 percent in Switzerland.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
My added comment: If my math is correct about 140 tons of gold would be moved out from Britain (50% of the total 280 tons).
No comments:
Post a Comment