In 2018 we witnessed several nations loading up on official, physical gold. Nations that had avoided the gold market for years with Hungary actually increasing their gold holdings by ten fold. Also of note, Hungary re-entered the gold market for the first time since 1986. Poland increased their holdings to move past their previous record high amount in 1983. We are seeing changes in the gold market that have not been seen in decades.
While these two countries made their acquisitions, and have not done anything since late 2018, other nations joined the gold market and have continued to add to their hoard.
We have documented for the past several years how Russia, Kazakhstan and a few other smaller nations have continually added to their official central bank gold holdings it is China and now India that are drawing the most attention. China reached their goal to satisfy the International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirement of gold to join the Special Drawing Right (SDR) basket of currencies, unit of account, in October 2016. At which time China halted official gold acquisitions until December 2018. China has been adding to their gold holdings each month since.
Now it appears that India after being told by China several years ago, as a member of the BRICS, she needs to increase her official gold holdings. Is this the reasoning for getting back into the gold market? Is India going to continue acquiring physical gold inspite of what the IMF or western banking overlords have to say about gold. Will India acquire more gold to conduct trade with Iran or to join the flow of gold trade between Russia and China? Lots of serious questions but no one is talking.
What we do know is their is real talk about India adding upwards of 46 tons, approximately 6.7 tons each month, of physical gold to their stack during the remaining 7 months of 2019.
The RBI may purchase 1.5 million ounces in 2019, or about 46.7 tons, according to Howie Lee, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., with an outlook based on extrapolating amounts bought in the first two months of this year.
The RBI increased its stash by about 42 tons last year, and after adding more in January and February, the country’s gold reserves now stand at a record high of almost 609 tons, according to data from the International Monetary Fund. Russia bought 274 tons in 2018 and has added more this year, while China’s central bank is on a renewed buying spree that began in December. Global official sector gold purchases could reach 700 tons in 2019 led by these countries as well as Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkey, according to Citigroup Inc. Source
Will India fulfill this idea of adding an additional 46+ tons of physical gold to their official gold holdings? What impact will this have on other nations that are now seeing major changes in the gold market, not to mention what is happening with Italy, Venezuela and Romania and their attempts to repatriate their gold from the European Central Bank and Bank of England? The situation with these three countries must have other nations very concerned or at least questioning the gold they have stored, “for safe keeping”, at these bullion banking cabals.
2019 is shaping up to a year of physical gold. With the mining industry beginning to show cracks in a variety of ways how will this year finish? These items play right into my forecast of much higher gold by 2023 – 4 short years from now. Got physical, close at hand?
