The Top Twelve Central Banks Gold Reserve Holdings
With China and India acquiring gold it is interesting to see that the United States still holds almost eight times the gold that China does and more than fourteen times India’s reserves.
Of note is that the United States has 78% of its foreign reserves in gold. Of the countries listed below only Greece (91.6%), Portugal (90.3%), and the Slovak Republic (83.3) have higher rates. However, China has only 1.8% of its foreign reserves in gold. India is looking a little better at 6%.
Only the top 50 countries by gold reserves are listed below. Of course the IMF and a few others are not countries but they do own substantial holdings.
Click on the column headers to sort.
| Country | Tons1 | Percent2 | $ Billion3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 8,966 | 78.3 | 313.80 |
| Germany | 3,762 | 69.5 | 131.66 |
| IMF | 3,546 | N/A | 124.13 |
| Italy | 2,703 | 66.1 | 94.59 |
| France | 2,701 | 73.0 | 94.55 |
| China | 1,162 | 1.8 | 40.66 |
| Switzerland | 1,147 | 37.1 | 40.13 |
| Japan | 843 | 2.1 | 29.52 |
| Netherlands | 675 | 61.4 | 23.63 |
| Russia | 592 | 4.0 | 20.71 |
| India | 615 | 6.0 | 21.52 |
| ECB | 553 | 18.3 | 19.34 |
| Taiwan | 467 | 3.8 | 16.34 |
| Portugal | 422 | 90.3 | 14.76 |
| Venezuela | 393 | 36.5 | 13.75 |
| United Kingdom | 342 | 17.9 | 11.97 |
| Lebanon | 316 | 26.8 | 11.07 |
| Spain | 310 | 39.0 | 10.86 |
| Austria | 309 | 56.3 | 10.80 |
| Belgium | 251 | 40.4 | 8.78 |
| Algeria | 191 | 3.4 | 6.70 |
| Philippines | 170 | 11.2 | 5.94 |
| Libya | 159 | 4.3 | 5.55 |
| Saudi Arabia | 158 | 11.9 | 5.52 |
| Sweden | 146 | 13.5 | 5.10 |
| Singapore | 140 | 2.1 | 4.92 |
| South Africa | 137 | 10.4 | 4.81 |
| BIS | 132 | N/A | 4.63 |
| Turkey | 128 | 4.9 | 4.48 |
| Greece | 124 | 91.6 | 4.34 |
| Romania | 114 | 8.1 | 4.00 |
| Poland | 114 | 4.8 | 3.97 |
| Thailand | 93 | 2.0 | 3.24 |
| Australia | 88 | 7.0 | 3.08 |
| Kuwait | 87 | 18.6 | 3.05 |
| Egypt | 83 | 6.3 | 2.92 |
| Indonesia | 81 | 3.8 | 2.82 |
| Kazakhstan | 80 | 10.6 | 2.80 |
| Denmark | 73 | 4.0 | 2.57 |
| Pakistan | 72 | 17.5 | 2.52 |
| Argentina | 60 | 3.4 | 2.11 |
| Finland | 54 | 17.7 | 1.89 |
| Bulgaria | 44 | 7.2 | 1.54 |
| WAEMU | 40 | 10.6 | 1.41 |
| Malaysia | 40 | 1.2 | 1.40 |
| Peru | 38 | 3.2 | 1.34 |
| Brazil | 37 | 0.5 | 1.30 |
| Slovak Republic | 35 | 83.3 | 1.23 |
| Bolivia | 31 | 10.4 | 1.09 |
| Ukraine | 29 | 3.1 | 1.03 |
Not all countries are listed.
Notes
1. 1 tonne = 1.10231131 short tons.
2. Percentage share in gold of total foreign reserves.
3. 1 short ton = 29,167 troy ounces. Worth is calculated at $1,200 per troy ounce.
Sources
“International Financial Statistics,” International Monetary Fund, 2009.
“Gold reserve“, Wikipedia.
