We’ve posted articles on Russia and other central banks steadily increasing their gold reserves in the past year but we thought it was time for a brief update. As some of you may know… after years of constantly selling gold, most countries around the world switched from being net sellers to net buyers of the precious metal – Russia being one of them. A quick look at the chart below puts into perspective how much of a shift the country has made in this regard.
People need to observe what’s going on around the world, there is a very large yet quiet shift moving
away from paper currencies to physical gold and silver. Major countries around the world are doing it (Russia, China, India etc.), hedge funds are doing it, multi-billion dollar investors are doing it… are you?
Chart taken from Ed Steer's Gold & Silver Daily, credited to Richard Nachbar and Susan McCarthy
Russia’s Central Bank purchased 500,000 ounces of gold in March… bringing their total gold stash to 21.3 million ounces. Without doubt, all this gold would have been purchased from Russia’s own mine production.
The really interesting part about their central bank’s purchases in the first quarter of 2010 is that they are off to their biggest [reported] first quarter gold purchases in history. In Q1/07, their net purchases were zero. In Q1/08 they purchased 200,000 ounces… and in Q1/09 Russia’s central bank purchased 360,000 ounces. But in Q1/10 they bought a monstrous 800,000 ounces. March 2010 purchase of 500,000 ounces is tied for the third-highest gold purchase for any one month…ever! If they keep this up, heaven only knows how many ounces they’ll have in their vaults by the end of this year.
– Ed Steer, Ed Steer’s Gold & Silver Daily
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