Russia October Gold purchase posts biggest gain this millennium

(November 22, 2016 - by Scrap Register, Moscow)

Russian central bank added around 48 tons of gold to its reserves during the month of October, which is the most it has bought since 1998.

According to Commerzbank, currency movements apparently have played a role in gold purchases by key gold-buying central banks such as in Russia and China, said.

Analysts cited news reports that the Russian central bank bought around 48 tons of gold in October, the biggest monthly gold purchase of this millennium.

“Clearly the central bank was taking advantage of the stronger ruble – which has made gold cheaper in local currency – to buy more gold,” said Commerzbank.

“By contrast, the Chinese central bank bought only around four tons of gold last month – the second-lowest gold purchases since China began publishing monthly figures back in June 2015. The currency is likely to have played a role here, too – the yuan has been depreciating noticeably since the end of September.”

The Russian Central Bank has quietly been buying huge volumes of gold over the past year. For 2015 Russia added a record 208 tons of gold to her reserves compared with 172 tons for 2014.

According to the World Gold Council, only USA, Germany, Italy, France and China central banks hold a larger tonnage of gold reserves than Russia. The world mines around 3,200 tons of gold per year, these 48 tons were around 1.5% of total newly mined gold. That is a significant amount to purchase for one country in one month.