China to Surpass India as Top Gold Buyer: Industry
Yahoo
China is set to overtake India as the world's largest gold buyer this year as demand for the metal for jewelry and as a safe-haven investment surges, the World Gold Council said Thursday.
Global demand hit 4,067.1 tonnes in 2011 -- edging up 0.4 percent year-on-year -- worth an estimated $205.5 billion, the first time demand has surpassed $200 billion, the WGC said in its latest annual report.
Gold prices rose to a record over $1,920 an ounce in September on frenzied buying by individuals, investment funds and central banks in the aftermath of a US credit rating downgrade and plunging global equity markets.
Prices have slipped since but still hover around $1,700 per ounce.
India, the largest gold consumer and importer, saw a 7.0-percent decline in demand year-on-year to 933.4 tonnes last year, while demand from China jumped 20.0 percent to 769.8 tonnes in the same period.
"There was a major boost to the overall demand from China, a trend we see continuing in the new year," said Marcus Grubb, WGC's investment managing director.
"It is likely that China will emerge as the largest gold market in the world for the first time in 2012."
India and China, which have been battled high inflation, combined account for more than half of the world's gold demand.
India, where gold is widely purchased for religious and ceremonial occasions, consumed less of the yellow metal in 2011 largely because of a weak rupee, which made imports of gold -- priced in dollars -- more expensive.
"The domestic currency fell precipitously in the second half of 2011, on foreign capital outflows. The rapid rise and fall in the rupee and resulting local gold price swings impacted gold buying," the report said.
India's gold demand was down 27.0 percent year-on-year in the second half of 2011.
The WGC said it expects global demand for gold to remain strong in 2012.
Despite the recent softening in demand, India is likely to record steady demand for gold this year, in-line with 2011 trends, analysts and the WGC said.
"The sentiment is likely to remain upbeat this year as inflation is moderating and various tax incentives are likely to support purchases," WGC's Middle East and India managing director Ajay Mitra told reporters.
Analyst Hareesh V. of research firm Geojit Comtrade expects India's gold demand to rise marginally by 2-3 percent this year.
"India could consume close to 965 tonnes in 2012, with the rupee rising against the dollar and inflationary pressures easing, which would boost the import of gold," Hareesh said.
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Gold Up on Safe-Haven Buying, Dollar Weakness
MarketWatch
Gold futures inched higher Friday, leaving behind early-session losses as a lower dollar and safe-haven buying ahead of the weekend supported prices.
The early price weakness was met with buying interest that quickly pushed prices higher, a good sign for gold’s short-term gain prospects, analysts said.
Gold for February delivery rose $6, or 0.4%, to $1,732.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange after tapping a low of $1,714.20 earlier.
A close in the black would be gold’s third straight session of gains.
Gold surged more than 3.6% in the past two days, and on Thursday settled at its highest in seven weeks.
The metal has enjoyed strong recent gains spurred by the Federal Reserve’s projection of ultra-low interest rates through 2014.
Gold prices have risen nearly 10% so far this month.
“Gold looks great in the charts and a lot of people are taking it as a sign to buy gold,” said Adam Klopfenstein, a market strategist with Archer Financial Services in Chicago.
Ahead of the weekend and potential for headlines out of Greece and the euro zone, some are also adding gold to their portfolio as a safe haven, he added. A lower dollar also helped push prices higher, Klopfenstein said.
The Wednesday Fed decision “awakened the positive gold sentiment” that had been underneath the surface but cloaked in caution after the selloff in fourth quarter, said Jeffrey Wright, a senior research analyst with Global Hunter Securities.
“Inflation is in the market; (it is ) just being under-reported in my opinion,” he said. In addition, the “miss” on fourth-quarter gross domestic product will give the Fed an “additional cover” to continue its “easing” stance and will also contribute to gold going higher, he added in emailed comments.
Earlier Friday, investors parsed out news U.S. GDP expanded 2.8% in the fourth quarter, compared to expectations of a rise around 3%.
Other metals more linked to industrial uses, and therefore more sensitive to the GDP news, felt the pressure on Friday, but silver turned higher.
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Gold Rises for Third Day After Soft U.S. GDP Data
Reuters
Gold prices rose on Friday, on track for their biggest three-day rally since late October, after a report showing disappointing U.S. economic growth boosted the metal's safe-haven appeal.
Bullion rose above $1,730 an ounce for the first time in seven weeks after data showed the U.S. economy grew less than expected in the fourth quarter. Gold's gains extended a rally ignited on Wednesday when the Federal Reserve said it would likely keep interest rates near zero until at least late 2014.
Gold also got a boost from reports that the world's biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, was bullish on the precious metal as a hedge against inflation as governments print more money to reduce debt.
"With the softer-than-expected GDP reading, it means that at a minimum we are going to have a highly accommodative monetary posture," said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist of Janney Montgomery Scott, a broker-dealer with about $54 billion in assets under management.
"That should be supportive of the higher gold price, as it plays into the probability that QE3 may be in the offing," Luschini said.
Spot gold was up 0.7 percent at $1,731.59 an ounce by 12:32 p.m. EST (1732 GMT). It is up around 4.5 percent this week alone, its biggest one-week gain since the last week of October.
U.S. gold futures for February delivery were up $4.80 at $1,731.50 an ounce at a strong volume.
Technical buying also fueled gains. Earlier in the week, gold broke above a key Fibonacci retracement level and the 100-day moving average. Gold rose above its 200-day MA last week.
Gold is on track to rise more than 10 percent this month, its biggest monthly gain since August 2011.
Explaining gold's big gains this week, analysts pointed to the Federal Reserve's announcement that it would keep rates low into 2014.
"The Fed's announcement that it would keep its rates exceptionally low until 2014 was ... clearly not fully priced by the market," said BNP Paribas analyst Anne-Laure Tremblay.
"Real interest rates are likely to stay negative in the U.S. in the next two years, which will be supportive of the gold price," Tremblay said.
Low interest rates benefit zero-yielding gold, and minimal borrowing costs also tend to fuel a gradual increase in commodity prices, supporting the metal's traditional role as a hedge against inflation.
Also helping gold was a weaker dollar versus the euro and stronger crude oil prices.
FED MOVE NEW CATALYST?
The debt crisis was a major driver of higher gold prices last year, as investors bought the metal as insurance against a worsening outlook for the euro zone. However, its rally stalled in late 2011 as the metal appeared to lose its appeal as a safe haven.
UBS analysts said the market attitude toward gold has largely been cautiously optimistic after the metal fell 10 percent and briefly entered a bear market in the fourth quarter.
"A fresh catalyst was needed and we think the FOMC outcome on Wednesday fit the bill. More accommodative policy is a very good foundation for gold to build on the next move higher," the Swiss Bank said in a note.
Among other precious metals, silver was up 0.8 percent at $33.68 an ounce.
Gold Settles at Six-Week High
MarketWatch
Gold futures rose to a six-week high on Monday, aided by a lower dollar and a bout of geopolitical concerns after the European Union imposed an oil embargo on Iran.
Gold for February delivery added $14.30, or 0.9%, to settle at $1,678.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
That was gold’s highest finish since Dec. 9. Other metals tracked gold higher, with silver ending nearly 2% up.
“There seems to be a general groundswell of interest” in gold in recent sessions, said James Moore, an analyst with the bulliondesk.com in the U.K.
News of the oil embargo the European Union imposed on Iran reflected broader issues in geopolitical concerns, helping gold’s run, he said.
In addition, the dollar traded lower, offering support for gold and other dollar-priced commodities.
The euro gained as investors grew more optimistic Greece’s debtors would eventually cut a deal with the embattled euro-zone country, reducing Greece’s debt significantly.
The dollar index, which compares the U.S. unit to a basket of six currencies, traded at 79.678 from 80.148 in late North American trading Friday.
Investor interest in gold, which faltered late last year but has outperformed most assets in the new year, has grown.
Net long positions in gold, or bets prices will go higher, are at a four-week high, analysts at Commerzbank said in a note to clients Monday.
Earlier Monday, Europe imposed an oil embargo against Iran and froze assets of its central bank in an effort to get the Iranian authorities to scale back its nuclear program. The embargo includes a block in all gold trading and other precious metals as well as diamonds.
The embargo pushed oil higher, which provided an extra layer of support for gold and commodities in general. Oil traded 1.3% higher on Monday.
Meanwhile, volume for Asian metals trading was reportedly thin, as many Asian markets, including China’s, the world’s top consuming gold nation, were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Without Asian markets “the floor for prices could be fragile this week,” analysts at Barclays Capital said in a note to clients. The “broader backdrop remains favorable for gold,” however, amid the improved market sentiment and “resilient” physical demand in China and India, they said.
The broader suite of metals tracked gold higher on Monday. March silver added 60 cents, or 1.9% to $32.27 an ounce. March copper ended 5 cents higher, or 1.4%, at $3.80 per pound.
Platinum and palladium also ended higher, with April platinum advancing $28.80, or 1.9%, to $1,561.10 an ounce. March palladium added $13.15, or 2%, to $688.85 an ounce.
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The New New Gold Rush
CNN Money
The market is off to a scintillating start in 2012 and many of last year's worst performers are leading the charge.
Europe debt worries seem to be dissipating a bit, helping the the euro bounce back. And investors are dumping stodgy Treasury bonds, pushing yields higher in the process. Risk is back.
So why is gold, the quintessential safe haven/fear trade, up about 7% in 2012 too? That's about the same as the Nasdaq.
You can probably thank the world's central bankers for helping fuel a gold rush. The funny thing about gold is that it often rallies when investors are terrified about deflation. But it also moves higher when investors start anticipating inflation.
And nothing cries out inflation like printing dollars (and euros) to try and halt a global crisis.
The Federal Reserve has been buying bonds for awhile to keep long-term interest rates low. Its latest means of doing so, a program dubbed Operation Twist that swaps short-term bonds for longer-term Treasuries, is slated to end in June.
And now the European Central Bank is also doing its part. Many investors credit the ECB's decision last December to allow banks to take out 3-year loans at a rate of just 1% for boosting confidence in Europe.
Demand for this program has been strong, and it seems that some banks have been using the proceeds to buy up the sovereign debt of distressed nations like Italy and Spain.
Gold: No guaranteed returns
Now you might be wondering why I've mentioned inflation so much. So-called core prices for consumer goods were up just 2.2% in the U.S. over the past 12 months. Inflation isn't an issue in Europe either.
But the market is focusing on the future. And as long as the Fed and ECB are in crisis management mode, it's likely that all the money that's sloshing around will eventually fuel inflation. That is bullish for gold, which is a classic way to hedge inflation since it is not a paper currency. It has tangible value.
"The only condition that matters for gold is if inflation expectations are rising. Since the first week of this year, there has been a dramatic repricing of inflation expectations," said Michael Gayed, chief investment strategist with Pension Partners LLC, an investment advisory in New York.
Gayed said that there's no reason why the recent trend of gold and stocks rallying in tandem can't continue as long as central banks keep taking serious steps to tackle the debt problems.
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Why The Wealthy Own Gold
Forex Pros
The global economy is in turmoil. Europe is on the verge of collapse, probably taking the US down with it. As the euro-crisis worsens, we march ever closer to outright monetization of European debt by the ECB and, covertly, by the Federal Reserve. The developed world is perilously close to a monetary deluge that could make the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation look like amateur hour.
Yet, I still talk to Wall Street analysts who clearly misunderstand gold's place in a portfolio. Meanwhile, many people who are part of the world's wealthy class are hoarding gold. What do they know that others don't?
If you ask the common man in the street about investing in gold, most will give you a strange look. After all, they believe investing is about stocks, bonds, and CDs.
If you ask someone with a bit more investing knowledge, they will tell you to buy gold during inflationary periods.
If you ask a relatively sophisticated investor, they will tell you to buy gold during deflationary and inflationary periods. Some may even say to buy gold during periods of uncertainty and instability, or when real interest rates are negative.
However, if you ask the world's wealthy class about gold they will give you a very different answer. At Plan B Economics, we've found that most of the world's wealthy class doesn't view gold as an investment at all! I would argue these folks have it right. Simply put, they consider gold to be a store of wealth and believe that anytime is a good time to own some gold.
With wealth storage (a.k.a. wealth preservation) as their goal, the rich are less fixated on daily fluctuations in gold prices. They aren't trying to earn short-term profits from gold ownership - they are trying to maintain their overall purchasing power. Since the wealthy have large asset bases, losses in purchasing power add up to big dollar figures, but the wealth preservation characteristics of gold are just as beneficial to the middle class.
Gold can protect real wealth because it tends to move in a different direction than other types of assets (i.e. gold is negatively correlated with other assets), making it an effective portfolio diversifier. When gold prices are falling, other forms of wealth are often rising in real terms. When gold is rising, other assets are usually falling in real terms. Gold has an offsetting effect when it is part of an overall asset base - but there are more important reasons the wealthy own gold.
As the world sinks into greater financial and political uncertainty, the wealthy want to protect their families from the unthinkable. Physical gold can store substantial wealth in a compact, universally-accepted form that can be hidden from the prying eyes of governments. So if/when collapse truly occurs, as it has consistently throughout history, the wealthy can escape with a big portion of their assets.
At this point, some of you reading this may be rolling your eyes, thinking such asset positioning is reserved for conspiracy theorists and survivalists, but history and current anecdotal evidence suggest this is how many wealthy people think. In fact, since I began writing on economics, I have encountered many wealthy people who have caches of food, precious metals, and weapons (but rarely admit it). They are acutely aware that if society broke down, they'd be the first scapegoats of the masses and any government rising to fill the power vacuum.
Ask the wealthy and middle class people who escaped Hitler's Germany (or many other similar authoritarian regimes throughout history) about gold. These people left behind houses, businesses, and paper assets to escape their home country. They even left behind savings and securities accounts, the withdrawal of which would have alerted authorities. (Moreover, German currency and securities were worthless in the eyes of non-German financial institutions.) They did, however, take as much gold as was physically possible. To these people, gold wasn't an investment, but a way to smuggle a lifestyle across borders in a suitcase.
I believe gold can provide the same utility to the wealthy and middle-class alike. Everyone should have a portion of their wealth stored in a fungible, highly-concentrated, portable form. The goal here is to prepare, not to predict. After-all, you buy homeowner's insurance but never expect your house to burn down.
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Gold “Breaking Away” from Slump in Stocks & Commodities, “Safe Haven Again” as Euro Hits 16-Month Low
GoldSeek
Prices to Buy Gold touched a 2-week high at $1625 per ounce in London's wholesale market early Thursday, before pulling back to $1609 as commodities and world stock markets fell, led by Eurozone banking shares.
The 17-nation Euro currency fell to $1.28, its lowest level in 16 months.
"[Wednesday] saw gold finally beginning to break away from trading in step with risk assets," said one London dealer this morning.
The correlation between Gold Prices and the VIX volatility index of daily movement in US equities – positive during most of 2011 – recently fell to its most negative reading in two years, notes Reuters Technical analyst Wang Tao.
"Gold appears at present to be living up more to its status as a safe haven again," says a note from Commerzbank, citing "geopolitical risks" in Western sanctions against Iran, plus the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis.
In Iraq today, at least 50 people were killed in a series of bomb attacks, extending the death-toll since US troops pulled out in mid-December, while protests over rising fuel prices in Nigeria, the world's 10th largest oil producer, were broken up by police.
Base metal and other commodity prices fell hard, but European crude oil contracts pushed higher to $113 per barrel despite the rising US Dollar.
Silver Prices fell back 3% from a 3-week high at $29.70 per ounce.
Prices to Buy Gold remained "well bid throughout" Asian trade on Thursday said a note from a Hong Kong dealer.
"Jewellers were restocking [and] demand was good in southern India, especially in Tamil Nadu, due to the Pongal festival," says bullion merchant Chanda Venkatesh of CapsGold in Hyderabad.
"Jewelry demand for gold is pretty good," agrees another dealer, but adds that the price for Gold Futures holders to 'exchange for physical' (EFPs) fell hard overnight, possibly ahead of bullion sales due to New Year rebalancing in the big commodity-tracking investment indices.
"We believe that Gold Prices will recover in 2012, and we maintain our bullish posture," says HSBC analyst James Steel, despite cutting his average forecast for this year from $2025 per ounce to $1850 this week.
Eurozone investors looking to Buy Gold today saw the price touch 3-week highs above €40,000 per kilo as the single currency slumped towards $1.28 on the forex market – its lowest level against the Dollar since Sept. 2010.
Priced in UK Sterling, gold briefly rose this morning above £1040 per ounce, a 2-week high first breached on the way up in August 2011.
"The UK is attractive to international investors because it is outside the Eurozone," reckons John Wraith at BofA Merrill Lynch, commenting on the strongest foreign-investment demand for UK government debt on record set in Oct. and Nov.
Continued demand has since driven 10-year gilt yields down to 120-year lows below 2.00%.
But "If [the UK's] economic conditions deteriorate further," says Wraith, "that could prompt a sell-off due to stubbornly high deficits."
After Wednesday's auction of €5 billion in new German Bunds drew demand of €5.3bn – only just improving on November's technically failed €6bn auction – a new sale of French government debt today met 1.6 times enough demand, sharply down from the 3.0 bid-to-cover made by investors last month.
Banking stocks dropped sharply across Europe, led by a 14% plunge in UniCredit as Italy's largest bank priced a €7.5 billion shares rights issue fully 43% belowWednesday night's close.
French bank Société Générale said today it is considering 1,580 jobs cuts at its investment banking division. In the same sector, Royal Bank of Scotland – now 83% owned by the British state – is weighing up to 10,000 job cuts, says the Financial Times, after being told by UK chancellor George Osborne to "scale back risky activities."
The Mediterranean region of Valencia in Spain has meantime delayed repaying a €123 million loan to Deutsche Bank by at least 1 week, says the Wall Street Journal, while the Hungarian Forint today sank to a fresh all-time low against the Euro after Budapest scaled back a planned 12-month debt auction by more than one-fifth in the face of weak demand.
“We are very near boiling point in Hungary," said SocGen analyst Benoit Anne in a note Wednesday, "with a crisis that may escalate into something much more serious than a simple macroeconomic crisis."
Hungary must refinance almost €5bn of foreign debt in 2012, and is due to start repaying a 2008 loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February.
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Gold at Best in 2 Weeks, Regains Safe-Haven Status
MarketWatch
Gold futures on Wednesday rose to their highest in two weeks, drawing strength from safe-haven buying as investors remained concerned about Iran and the euro zone.
Gold for February delivery rose $12.20, or 0.8%, to $1,612.70 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. That was gold’s highest settlement since Dec. 21.
The metal earlier veered between small gains and losses, but gathered steam as U.S. stocks started their trading day on the red.
That is an indication that gold vied to regain its status as a safe-haven investment, said Adam Klopfenstein, an analyst with Archer Financial in Chicago. After it settled above $1,600 the previous session, it gained momentum, he added.
There are plenty of reasons to remain concerned about the global economy, with the euro zone “at the whims of bond holders” and only a negative piece of data away from more problems, Klopfenstein said.
In addition, “Iran definitely adds a back trap ... it also provides a bullish scenario for gold,” he said.
Gold ended Tuesday 2.2% higher, at its best in more than a week at $1,600.50 an ounce as the dollar lost against major rivals, and oil and U.S. equities rallied.
In recent months, gold has broadly traded in tandem with other commodities and stocks, losing most of its allure as a safe haven.
It started to veer toward that path again on Tuesday, however, in part due to concerns about Iran’s threats to disrupt oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz as well as news Iran had successfully made and tested nuclear fuel rods as the country continues to defy Western powers in face of sanctions.
Gold prices are expected to trade in a tight band between $1,570 and $1,620 an ounce, analysts at India’s ICICI Bank said in a note to clients Wednesday. Klopfenstein said that the settlement again above $1,600 would put gold back on the sights of large funds and provide some traction for the metal in the short term.
Meanwhile, Indian gold imports last year fell short of market expectations, raising more than a few eyebrows as India is one of the world’s top consumers of gold.
Demand for gold in India “is likely to be relatively muted this year too, and should remain at roughly the 2011 level,” analysts at Commerzbank said in a note to clients.
Last year, however, central-bank purchases “more than made up” for the weak Indian demand, and central banks are expected to keep expanding gold reserves this year as well, keeping gold prices well supported, the analysts added.
Other metals futures traded lower, leaving behind the previous session’s steep gains, fueled in part by optimism surrounding U.S. manufacturing activity as Tuesday’s Institute for Supply Management index rose more than expected in December.
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Gold Still a Safe-Haven Investment
Gulf News
Amid the economic slowdown, a lack of trading in the stock market and property values eroding, gold remains a major investment option for investors, experts say.
A Dubai-based spot trader of gold and silver bullion, Gold Arab Emirate, said it has achieved over $500 million (Dh1.84 billion) in transactions in 2011, mainly from Dubai, Turkey, Kuwait and Switzerland branches.
Gold trade in the first half of 2011 reached 580 tonnes (average price $1,455), with exports down from 225 to 214 tonnes, reflecting greater local consumption, according to the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) Authority.
"Dubai, in particular, has generated substantial trade volume driven by the continuing surge in local demand, as local imports have reached up to three tonnes of gold each year, reaffirming the emirate's growing status as the ‘City of Gold'," the company said in a statement.
A Gold Arab Emirate spokesperson said he expects volumes to continue increasing as gold remains the best investment.
The UAE has traditionally been a major gold trading hub. A Ministry of Foreign Trade study shows the country to be among the world's top five gold traders from 2005 to 2009, ranking second globally in gold imports in 2009 alone with $14.5 billion worth of gold imported which is equivalent to 16.6 per cent of global imports. In the same period, the UAE ranked third globally in gold exports with a 10 per cent share of global exports worth $10.5 billion.
"Gold fell in light holiday trade on Tuesday as technical weakness, options-related selling and a lack of fresh economic news failed to stimulate buying interest in the final week of the year. Gold is on track for a 9 per cent fall for December," according to an American Petroleum Institute trading update on Tuesday.
Technical support
"Prices earlier in the month plunged below key technical support they had held for nearly three years, fuelling fears that bullion was close to ending a more than decade-long bull run. Spot gold fell to a one-week low of $1,588.89 earlier in the session. It was down 0.8 per cent at $1,592.80 an ounce. This year to date, gold is up 12 per cent, one of the few investment assets that posted sizable gains in a rather difficult 2011 largely plagued by US double-dip recession fears and Europe's debt crisis."
Mohammad Abu Al Haj, vice-chairman and CEO of Abu Al Haj Holding Limited and Chairman of Gold Arab Emirate, said: "Gold is the only safe-haven investment for 2012 and everyone should have at least 20 per cent of their portfolio in physical gold. In this regard, Gold Arab Emirate therefore serves as a gateway for investors by offering a wide range of alternative solutions for gold investments." Al Haj believes the price of gold will exceed $2,500 an ounce by the end of 2012.
"Nobody can deny that inflation and possibly hyper-inflation will take place in 2012, and the only thing that can protect an individual's net worth from such inflation is gold," he said.
Keeping value
"Money can be printed, gold cannot. For that reason gold always keeps its value. Moreover, I believe that Dubai will be the main gold hub in the world since it has the best logistics and investors' supply/demand satisfaction."
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China Should Buy More Gold – Central Bank
International Business Times
News of falling gold prices may bad news for most, but not for China.
Now is the most opportune time for China to buy more gold assets when prices of the yellow metal are dropping, to ensure the country maintains and protects a well-diversified foreign-exchange portfolio, Zhang Jianhua, research bureau director at the People's Bank of China, said in the Financial News, a newspaper published by the Chinese central bank.
"The Chinese government... needs to further optimise China's foreign exchange asset portfolio and seek relatively low entry points to buy gold assets," Mr Zhang wrote, noting government should remain cautious of possible inflationary pressures rising.
Other assets such as government bonds and property are slowly losing value. "Gold remains the only safe haven for risk-averse investors," he said.
China should increase its gold acquisition, more aggressively when prices drop, Mr Zhang said.
He did not, however, specify as to how much of the country's $3.2 trillion forex reserve should be allocated to gold investments.
Figures from China's central bank showed the world's second-largest economy currently holds 33.89 million ounces of gold in its reserves, unchanged since April 2009.
Gold purchases of central banks from China, Russia, Thailand and Mexico in the third quarter of 2011 showed a hike of more than six times to 148.4 tons compared to a year ago. Figures from the Gold Demand Trends report for Q3 2011 by the World Gold Council said central banks have been aggressively buying the yellow metal to increase their total reserve allocation, a move to diversify investments away from U.S. dollars.
Central bank purchases have more than doubled by 114 per cent over the previous quarter, in what could be the highest level of central bank buying since at least 1970.
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