If gold is hated, as much as we are told, why would the UK import so much year after year after year? More importantly, what happens with all this gold coming across the border, reported as being for the UK but does not show up on their “official gold reserves”? Where is it reported?
After doing several searches, using a variety of search engines, the following items came to light. This was published on Dec. 12, 2019.
Below are the 15 countries that imported the highest dollar value worth of gold during 2018.
Switzerland: US$63.3 billion (22% of total gold imports)
China: $45.8 billion (15.9%)
India: $31.8 billion (11.1%)
United Kingdom: $25.6 billion (8.9%)
Hong Kong: $23.6 billion (8.2%)
Singapore: $13.5 billion (4.7%)
Thailand: $11.4 billion (4%)
Turkey: $11.3 billion (3.9%)
United Arab Emirates: $10 billion (3.5%)
United States: $9.6 billion (3.4%)
Cambodia: $5.7 billion (2%)
Canada: $4.8 billion (1.7%)
Australia: $4.6 billion (1.6%)
Germany: $4.6 billion (1.6%)
Italy: $4 billion (1.4%)
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United Kingdom’s global purchases of imported gold totaled US$25.6 billion in 2018. Below are the top 15 suppliers from which the UK imported the highest dollar value worth of gold during 2018. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country since 2014.
Canada: US$7.9 billion (up 21.1% from 2014)
United States: $6.4 billion (up 86.9%)
South Africa: $3.9 billion (up 68.4%)
Australia: $1.2 billion (up 61.8%)
Germany: $1.1 billion (up 126.4%)
Switzerland: $791.1 million (up 6.5%)
Kyrgyzstan: $651.6 million (no 2014 data)
Mexico: $619.3 million (up 592.8%)
Brazil: $595.6 million (down -9.9%)
Spain: $587.4 million (up 41.7%)
Turkey: $532.5 million (up 440.1%)
Japan: $510.8 million (up 65.5%)
Russia: $419.1 million (down -18.2%)
Hong Kong: $54.4 million (down -67.7%)
United Arab Emirates: $53.2 million (down -38.4%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 99.2% of all UK gold imports in 2018.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of gold to United Kingdom since 2014 were: Mexico (up 592.8%), Turkey (up 440.1%), Germany (up 126.4%) and United States (up 86.9%).
Four countries experienced declines in the value of their gold supplied to UK importers namely: Hong Kong (down -67.7%), United Arab Emirates (down -38.4%), Russia (down -18.2%) and Brazil (down -9.9%).
Overall, the value of United Kingdom’s gold imports increased by an average 25.9% from all supplying countries since 2014 when gold purchases were valued at $20.3 billion. Source
The questions we are asking came about because of another article that was published on Jan. 1, 2020 – short, to the point and not widely reported. It appears that hardly anyone is reporting on this situation when it deserves a very, very bright spotlight. Once again, we are told over and over that gold has no value but the United Kingdom sees fit to import hundreds of millions of dollars / euros worth of the stuff year after year after year – while everyone stands idly by not reporting it!! Very odd.
The following 51 words – 51 words – makes up the entire report.
AKIPRESS.COM – The UK remains an important trade partner of Kyrgyzstan with 41.3% share in the volume of export, the National Statistics Committee said.
The country within 8 months of 2019 exported gold worth $490.9 million to the UK.
Export of gold increased by 47.2%. Growth was from 31.5% to 41.5% in January-September 2019 compared to the same period of 2018. Source
I’ve learned, over the years, the shorter the article the more weight it carries. Think of it as question on an exam – the exam question with 10 words is usually much more of a challenge than the question with 25 words. Scary in it’s brevity.
The other interesting aspect of this situation is the EXPORT of physical gold out of the UK. We presume there is physical gold involved in this situation, but we can not be 100% sure. With all the secrecy surrounding gold at the sovereign level when the question of gold is raised all the sudden people begin losing data, their train-of-thought and where they placed that last bar of gold! Funny how that works.
There seems to be a discrepancy between the volume of gold IMPORTED and the volume of gold EXPORTED.
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of gold during 2018.
Switzerland: US$64 billion (20.9% of total gold exports)
Hong Kong: $37.2 billion (12.2%)
United Kingdom: $31.8 billion (10.4%)
United States: $20.3 billion (6.6%)
United Arab Emirates: $15.7 billion (5.1%)
Australia: $14.2 billion (4.6%)
Canada: $12.3 billion (4%)
Singapore: $11.1 billion (3.6%)
Peru: $7 billion (2.3%)
Japan: $6.3 billion (2.1%)
Ghana: $6.1 billion (2%)
South Africa: $5.5 billion (1.8%)
Germany: $4.6 billion (1.5%)
Thailand: $4.4 billion (1.4%)
Mexico: $4.3 billion (1.4%)
Source
This is exactly like the confiscated gold in India. Gold mysterious shows up in India, is confiscated by the authorities, sits somewhere in the country, but is not reported as official gold reserves for India, then is auctioned off at the discretion of the same authorities that confiscated the gold in the first place. To say this practice is shady would be a serious understatement.
In the article Gold Smuggling In India – Who Keeps The Confiscated Gold? we sighted the following information.
The World Gold Council (WGC) estimates that a total of around 40 to 50 tonnes of gold have been smuggled to India so far this year. The announcement was made by WGC’s India Managing Director P.R. Somasundaram. It must be recalled that nearly 100 tonnes of the yellow metal were smuggled into the country during the whole of 2018.
Then ask the obvious question.
If one looks at this information there are a couple of questions that come to mind. If the gold that has been confiscated, by the Indian government why is there not an exact, precise amount of gold?
While these two stories are seemingly different they are very much exactly the same. So-called authoritative sources are not forthcoming with the precise information surrounding what is happening in the gold market. The information is vague, ill-reported and the numbers, seemingly, do not match or follow any sort of normal reporting pathway. GAAP is certainly not in play.
The next time someone in a position of authority ask about your gold holdings give these vague answers a try and see what happens. My guess is, if something happened and your typical “gold bug” found himself in front of some random authority figure there would be a very precise measurement – down to the 1,000th of a gram – of the gold confiscated from your safe / vault or wherever it is found.
Keep your gold close, quiet and in a very secure place.
