Gold reached new all-time highs during April 2004, but by the end of the month, prices have fallen significantly, the World Gold Council (WGC) says in an analysis submitted to the Putrea newspaper on Thursday.
The relative stability was due to purchases in the Chinese market and the increase in purchases made by central banks, a trend considered by analysts to be the “main supporting factors”.
The market is largely stable and prices are set to remain flat for some time to come, “without a crash landing” most likely, WGC analysts believe. The risks of stagflation are rising, however, as price increases look fragile, even as inflation remains problematic.
Globally, Europe generated significant outflows in April.
Global gold ETFs posted their eleventh consecutive monthly outflow in April, generating a $2.2 billion trade deficit.
North American (+$124 million) and Asian (+$1.5 billion) entries failed to offset European share losses of ($-3.7 billion) for the month.
Annual outflows totaled $8.7 billion, recording a 146-ton reduction in holdings.
In the top of exits is Europe, with minus 6.6 billion dollars, followed by North America, with minus 4.2 billion dollars. During this time, Asia was the only region that capped inflows, at the level of plus 2.2 billion dollars.
An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) represent a diversified collection of assets (similar to a mutual fund) that trades on the stock market in a similar way to stocks. As with mutual funds, ETFs take into account assets such as stocks, bonds, indices (most ETFs track the performance of an index) and commodities. ETFs sometimes cover a segment of the market, or reflect an index, so their holdings could be broken down into different stocks with specific weights.
ETFs represent a category of financial instruments that has gained popularity recently, with their number increasing by 70% from 2008 to the present.
The gold reserves accumulated by the countries of the world, in the treasuries of the central banks, totaled 38,764 tons, in 2023, of which the United States held the largest reserve of hoarded gold, 8,133 tons.
Of this amount, more than half, 4,580 tons, are stored in the bullion vaults of the high-security Fort Knok military base.
In the top 10 statistics of the World Gold Council (WGC), the USA is followed by Germany, with a reserve, with 3,355 tons, Italy, with 2,451 tons, France, with 2,436 tons, Russia, with 2,298 tons, China, with 1,948 tons , and Switzerland, with 1,040 tons.
The dynamic jump in gold accumulations worldwide shows a fundamental transformation in economic sentiment, and the behavior of governments in their policies, with significant implications globally in the future.
Romania is not in the top 25 countries with the largest gold reserves in the world either, the level of the country’s gold reserve being only 103.6 tons, with a value of 6.240 billion euros, according to BNR data.
About 61 tons of Romania’s total of 103.6 tons are stored at the Bank of England in Great Britain for safety reasons. For the administration of the deposit, the National Bank of Romania pays the Bank of England approximately 70,000 dollars annually
