World central banks in February, according to preliminary estimates of the World Gold Council (WGC), purchased 19.1 tons of gold for gold and foreign exchange reserves. This is 2.4 times less than the updated January results (45.4 tons), and yet the increase has continued for 9 months in a row.
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Who is buying gold
“Banks in developing countries, such as China and India, remain the drivers of demand,” notes WGC analyst Krishan Gopaul wrote in his review. “The slower pace of replenishment of reserves in February had little effect on the general trend of purchases from central banks.”
China purchased 12.1 tons of gold for reserves in February, India – 5.6 tons. Also among the large buyers are Kazakhstan (5.8 tons), Turkey (4.2 tons) and Singapore (2.1 tons), another 1-2 tons were bought by the Czech Republic, Qatar and Kyrgyzstan.
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The largest seller in February was Uzbekistan, which reduced the volume of gold in its reserves by 11.8 tons. Also, a significant volume (3.9 tons) was sold by CB Jordan.
