It may come as little surprise to those who understand the “fear trade” and the “love trade” in gold, as Frank Holmes of US Global Investors likes to say.
Last week the Economic Times reported that the Indian public hold 20,000 tonnes of the yellow metal in jewelry, coins and gold bars. It was unclear from the media report what was the source of the “20,000-tonnes” comment, but Arun Jaitley, the Indian Finance Minister, reportedly stated the figure after noting that the Indian government does not have data on gold held by the general public.
However it would mesh with a news story three years ago in The Financial Express, which said that Indian households have amassed up to 20,000 tonnes for a historic high of $1.16 trillion, based on the gold price in 2012. The figure came from the World Gold Council (WGC) which estimated that India’s household gold reserves at the time were 11 percent higher than the 18,000 tonnes it had earlier pegged.
Gold has been pouring into India since the government last November scrapped gold import restrictions, including the 80:20 rule, which required gold traders to export 20 percent of the gold that they imported. In April Reuters reported that gold imports more than doubled to 125 tonnes in March from the 60 tonnes in the year-ago period. Gold imports for the fiscal year 2014-15, which ended at the end of March, were up 36 percent to 900 tonnes.
India, the world’s top gold consumer, is in 10th position among the top 10 countries that hold the most gold in their central banks. The Reserve Bank of India holds 557.7 tonnes of the precious metal, compared to number 9, the Netherlands at 612.5 tonnes, and eighth-ranked Japan at 765.2 tonnes. The top 3 gold hoarders are the United States at 8,133.5 tonnes, Germany at 3,384.2 tonnes, and Italy at 2,451.8 tonnes, according to Profit Confidential which recently compiled a list.
12 Comments
dassa0069
Gold is the only money you can trust.
SuperMilkus2012
And Canadians have hoarded a million tonnes of nickel in their backyards…but of course there is no data to support that…another stupid article
dictatorhater
If those quantities are true, why is it so difficult for the US to allow countries that have stored their gold in the US to repatriate it?
Altaf
@supermilkus2012:disqus ,
Just few hints.
1. Every one knows that India imports around 800-1000 tons of Gold per year. Indian Reserve Bank is not buying a single gram of that. Where is the gold going?
2. If you see the population of 1.2 billion, and every household having min few grams is not a impossible situation to imagine.
3. Unlike history of civilization in Canada which goes back to max 400 years, for thousands of years we know the value of gold and are accumulating.
Add all the above and you get your answer.
Infact I am surprised at such a low figure of 20K tons ?? in 6,000 years??
We need to work harder 🙂
heeragoldtrade
Invest in gold, that will definitely give you good profits.
Anopheles
Gold is a very poor “investment”.
If you had $1,000 worth of gold in 1970, you would have had 28 oz. (approx $36/oz)
Today, it would be worth $33,600
BUT, if you had put that same $1,000 into Berkshire Hathway stock, it would be worth almost $5.5 million today.
GemeniDreams
Once space exploritation becomes feasible in several generations, precious metals from the asteroid belt will make gold and plantium inexpensive for the first time in human history. It’s not of question of ‘if’, only a question of ‘when’. As an aside there enough gold in the earth’s interior to make the present hoard of gold in India, Ft Knox and the IMF worthless.
Akshay Dhar
unlike other countries, india consumes gold, because the majority hindu community does not believe in selling gold…our temples have enough gold to bring gold prices at a 10 times low that=n their current prices..but there are some religious implications too…
Blenson Paul
I gold we trust, Gold bless India.
Ankur Sharda
In Indian temples, there are worth Billions of US$ gold in reserve and every household owns a piece of gold irrespective of wealth status. Even poorest of person owns Gold in India where 30% of population is below poverty line. There are Middle Class people those who own Gold minimum of 1 Kg per family. Realistic figures would be much more higher than projected in the country like India at least 400 million people are wearing or holding Gold worth 500 gms. There are corporates which are trading and holding Gold where 1 tonne of gold is common affair.
Bharath
rubbish ..the gold holdings in india will be more then 50 k tonne easilyy
Shobhit Singh
We have more gold than estimated . We never think gold as a investment tools , It just our habbit, belief and important for social security and associated with our religious beliefs too. Calculation is change according to time but our belief towards gold is never change and not need to associate to this to any kind of financial math. It could be 40000-60000 tons gold.