Kazakhstan ranks 16th in the world in terms of gold reserves
At the end of October 2019 Kazakhstan's international reserves amounted to $29.5B, 1.6% up compared to the same period last year ($29B), and by 2.5% more than in September. This figure has also become the highest since the beginning of 2019, Strategy2050.kz informs with reference to Finprom.kz.
The country’s currency reserves have been on the decline for the fifth consecutive year, standing at $11.2B as of November. While the assets in fully convertible currency have grown by 4.5% over the past month.
There is also the rapid increase in the gold volumes as the country’s gold reserves have observed the increase from $7B to $18.3B over the past five years.
So the ratio of gold and currency in international reserves is 62% and 38%, respectively.
Gold and foreign exchange reserves are at a fairly high level to ensure the stability of the national currency in the event of economic shocks.
As of October the world gold price was $ 1 506.4 per ounce, a month earlier it was $ 1 487.6 per ounce (+ 1.3%). The gold price has risen by 17.5% since the beginning of the year, and by 23.7% compared to October 2018.
In 2018, due to the growing geopolitical and economic uncertainty throughout the world more and more central banks diversified their reserves and shifted their focus on safe and liquid assets. According to a survey conducted by the World Gold Council, 76% of central banks view gold as a safe havens.
According to the World Gold Council, net purchases of gold by central banks in 2018 reached 651.5 tons, by 73.8% up over the previous year (374.8 tons). This is the highest level of annual net purchases since the suspension of the convertibility of dollars into gold in 1971 and the second largest annual total for the entire history of the organization's observations.
In 2018, Kazakhstan was in the list of top 3 gold buyers behind Russia and Turkey, adding 50.6 tons of gold to its gold reserves within the year.
The third quarter of 2019 saw central banks have bought 156 tons of gold. So the purchases have risen to 547.5 tons for nine months of this year. Total fourteen central banks reported adding one or more tons of gold to their foreign exchange reserves. The purchase took place in a wide variety of countries, mainly in emerging markets.
Kazakhstan, in turn, represented by the National Bank for eight months of this year, increased its gold reserves by 26.9 tons and in the ranking of countries by gold reserves the country ranks 16th, ahead of Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
Photo credit: inovasisolution.com
