European central banks halt gold sales: World Gold Council

World Gold Council said European central bank sold 1.1 tonnes of gold during the year, the lowest annual sales since the Central Bank Gold Agreement began in September 1999. The current agreement permits signatories to sell 400 tonnes of gold collectively per annum.

The council said that European signatories showed a similar unwillingness to sell gold in the prior year of the agreement, selling just 7.1 tonnes of the permitted 400 tonnes ceiling.

“European central banks’ appetite for gold sales has dissipated since the onset of the financial crisis,” said Natalie Dempster, the World Gold Council’s Director of Government Affairs

“During periods of such intense economic and financial market turbulence gold adds much needed stability to a central bank’s reserves. This is also evident from the behaviour of emerging market central banks over the past two years who have accumulated significant additional volumes of gold. As a whole, central banks are now large net buyers of gold having re-evaluated their reserve asset management policies and we expect them to remain so for the foreseeable future.”

Image from World Gold Council

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