Indian people have more gold than the government. A birth, marriage, anniversary, ritual, festival, function, happiness, celebration, in all these occasions gold is always decorated on people. But what we see at home is a micro level, macro level gold and its dealing economically and in business is too different.
India was known as “Sone Ki Chidiya” which is a bird of gold in English. It implies that India used to be the country with maximum gold. KGF and KGF chapter 2 movies revise the past glory of India.
A gold reserve implies the gold which is kept with the National Central Bank of the country. It can be used as a guarantee to redeem promises to pay depositors, note holders, or trading peers.
World’s top 10 countries with largest gold reserves consist of-:
- United States of America
- Germany
- Italy
- France
- Russia
- China
- Switzerland
- Japan
- India
- Netherlands
Gold in the ancient world used to be an element of exchange for goods and services; later on paper currency was invented. But today also gold is used for trading but on a large scale nationally and internationally. Gold is a significant part of the government’s reserves management.
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Coming to the Supreme Leader of the world in terms of power, wealth, development, USA is the top country to have largest gold reserves. It has 8,133.5 tonnes of gold reserves as per data.
An interesting thing: One must be aware of Fort Knox if one had seen the movie Gold finger of James Bond. Also in cartoons in which Bugs bunny played Yosemite Sam and ended up digging into gold bars and arresting him.
Fort Knox’s gold vault is a mysterious place in America. Only a few people managed to go inside and they were mesmerized by the gold placed there.
A fact:-There 147.3 billion ounces of gold in Fort Knox.
GERMANY
Standing on the 2nd most position in holding largest gold reserves in the world Germany holds 3359 tonnes of reserves. Budes bank has been responsible for the gold reserves of Germany since 1951. The country’s reserves were mostly piled up between the 1950s and 1970s during the increasing economic era.
ITALY
Holding the 3rd position in world’s largest gold reserves, Italy has 2451. 84 tonnes of gold reserves. Surprisingly Italy’s gold reserves are with the Banca d’Italia which officially owns them. The Banca d’Italia is co-owned by the Italian state. Italy reserves most of its gold at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, USA.
FRANCE
France secures fourth position in holding largest gold reserves in the world. It has 2436. 50 tones of gold reserves with it. National gold reserves of France are stored with the Banque de France. They keep the gold reserves underground in a 1000² hall in the vault “La Souterraine”.
RUSSIA
The fifth country with World’s largest gold reserves is Russia. It holds 2301.64 tonnes of gold reserves of the total. Two third of its gold reserves are stored in Moscow in a central bank repository. Rest one third of the gold reserves are kept in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg.
CHINA
Being the sixth world’s largest gold reserves country, China holds 1948.3 tonnes of gold reserves. It is not confirmed if exactly where the gold reserves are stored one source informs that the Chinese gold reserves are stored in the vault in Beijing whereas the other sources claim that Chinese People’s Liberation Army keeps the gold reserves.
SWITZERLAND
Switzerland is the world’s seventh largest gold reserves holding country. It has 1040 tons of gold reserves. These are kept in the Swiss National Bank (SNB). Between 2000 and 2008, gold prices were rising rapidly. Taking the advantage, Switzerland sold 1550 tons of gold.
JAPAN
Japan is on the 8th among the top world’s largest gold reserves countries. It has gold reserves of 845.97 tonnes. Japan’s gold reserves in the early 19th century were very low and they continued to be very less till the 1990s. The country’s gold reserves increased drastically from the 1990s and there was no stopping point, their growth was enormous as per the charts.
INDIA
India is the 9th country with World’s largest gold reserves. It holds 724.24 tonnes of gold reserves. These reserves are stored in the vault in Nagpur with the Reserve Bank of India. Some of its reserves are stored in London, Britain.
India always fantasizes other countries with its traditions and conventional beliefs. One such tradition that has been followed for centuries is Gold jewellery.
Indian household gold reserves are 40 percent of the GDP of the country. If calculated the value of all the gold present in Indian households apart from the government, it would be around 25000 tonnes of gold. It cost 1135 billion dollars.
NETHERLANDS
Last on the list but not the least, the Netherlands stands on the tenth position for holding the largest gold reserves in the world. It secures 612.45 tonnes of gold reserves. The Netherlands does not keep all of its reserves in the country itself. Some of it has been kept in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
More to know
- The largest gold mine is the Muruntau mine. The mine is located in Uzbekistan.
- The Dolce by Wyndham Hanoi Golden Lake is the world’s first ever gold made hotel. From taps to toilets everything is made of gold.
- Dattatrey D. Phuge was an Indian politician who is called the Golden Man. He had himself a shirt made of 22 carat pure gold.
- India was popularly known as Golden Bird because the country had precious stones, raw materials and gold mines in abundance.
Every country is specialized in its reserve collection. The collection might differ from country to country, amount to amount. One must be aware of its country’s financial status for a broader knowledge and in every aspect.
