World Gold Council report: RBI ranks 6th in buying gold abroad

The World Gold Council (WGC) recently released its report, “World Gold Outlook 2020”. The report says that gold has performed the best since 2010 in 2019. In 2019, the gold trade in USD has increased by 18.4% as compared to 2010.

Highlights: India

According to the WGC, RBI (Reserve Bank of India) currently holds 625.2 tonnes of gold. This is 6.6% of the country’s foreign exchange. With this, India ranks sixth in the world among other central banks.

The report says that higher taxes have exacerbated the local gold price consumption. the recently introduces new hallmarking reforms are expected to increase consumer trust, remove inefficiencies, promote growth and improve confidence.

Highlights: World

The other 5 countries that have bought more gold than India include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Poland. The Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) of institutional investors were the second largest buyers of gold in 2019. The report predicts that they will continue to buy more gold in 2020 as well.

In 2019, the largest gold sellers were Uzbekistan and Venezuela. They sold 16.6 tonnes and 30.3 tonnes respectively.

World Gold Council

The WGC is a market development organization. The headquarters of WGC is located in London. The offices of WGC are located in China, India, US and Singapore. The WGC office in India is located in Mumbai.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2020