Yoga-mag

Those concerns have been propelling the precious metal to record highs over the past 18 months…

Last year, foreign central banks were net buyers of gold for the first time since 1997. India, China and Russia have been the biggest buyers. And more recently, the Philippines and Kazakhstan jumped into the fray with big purchases of the precious metal during the first quarter, according to data released by the World Gold Council Thursday.

What’s behind the buying binge?
Each country has its own unique reasons, but there are a few broad trends that unite them all, said Natalie Dempster, director of government affairs for the World Gold Council.

Like many individual investors, foreign governments prefer to spread their wealth around to decrease their risk… Unlike paper currencies, gold has a tangible value and that value is not dependent on any one country’s economic policies…

As far as public records show, Russia appears to be the largest buyer of gold among central banks so far this year. In the first quarter of 2010, Russia’s central bank increased its gold reserves by 26.6 metric tonnes, or about $1.2 billion at today’s price, according to World Gold Council data. That’s in addition to the 117.63 tonnes that Russia added in 2009. Russia has been adding to its gold reserves steadily for more than three years, partly through buying its own domestic mine production…

China is considered a stealth buyer of gold, said Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at Global Forex Trading. As the world’s largest producer of the metal, China often buys gold from its own mines and doesn’t report those sales publicly. But in April 2009, China did admit to having added 454 tonnes, or a 76% increase, to its reserves since 2003.

Analysts suspect the country is continuing to buy gold and could in fact, be the world’s largest buyer consistently. It simply doesn’t reveal it’s pro-gold stance proudly, however, because China is also the world’s largest holder of U.S. Treasurys… Announcing an aggressive gold buying spree is not in China’s best interest because [...] it could devalue the U.S. dollar, which would subsequently lessen the worth of the country’s portfolio of U.S. government bonds, Schlossberg said.