FRANKFURT, Germany -- Germany's central bank is bringing home gold reserves stored in places like New York and Paris faster than planned, it said today, as confidence in the euro ebbs even in the heart of the currency bloc after a decade of a sluggish economy.
Stashed away at the height of the Cold War in safe havens well out of Moscow's reach, the 3,378-tonne, 120 billion-euro (102 billion-pound) gold stockpile has become a symbol of Germany's economic ascent and a guardian of its stability.
But with Europe stumbling from crisis to crisis, the German public has grown uneasy about keeping the gold abroad. Some even argue the world's second biggest bullion reserve may be needed to back a new deutschmark should the euro zone break up.
Having already moved 583 tonnes of gold out of New York and Paris, the Bundesbank plans to have half its gold in Frankfurt by the end of 2017, years ahead of its 2020 schedule, with the rest split between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of England.
"We have a lot of discussions about (U.S. President Donald) Trump, regarding implications on monetary policy, macroeconomics, etc., but we trust the central bank of the U.S.," Bundesbank board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele told a news conference. ...
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