Central Banks Gold Withdrawals From BIS Most in at Least 8 Years

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

As we watch the acceleration of history's biggest financial bubble, gold reserves at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) are decreasing rapidly too. According to the BIS annual report for the year ending March 2011, gold reserves fell from 1,361 tons to 729 tons. This is the biggest withdrawal by other central banks since 2004.
From Bloomberg:

Central banks withdrew about 632 metric tons of gold from deposits at the Bank for International Settlements in the year ended March 31, the most in at least eight years.

Gold deposits at the BIS fell to about 729 tons, from 1,360.7 tons the previous year, according to its annual report. That’s the most since the year ended March 2004, when the bank began stating gold deposits in millions of special drawing rights. This year’s withdrawal compares with a deposit increase of about 194.1 tons in the year ended March 2010, according to BIS reports.

“Potential explanations include a resumption of central bank lending to the private sector as the balance sheets of commercial banks have improved and the fact that current low lease rates are giving little incentive for central banks to deposit their gold with the BIS,” said Edel Tully, a London based analyst at UBS AG.

On Tuesday gold traded to new records in the wake of the release of the Federal Reserve's FOMC
minutes from the June 21/22 meeting that indicated the Fed will continue its futile effort to print the USA out of debt.