kudukid

Market turmoil: Stampede of fear into oil, gold http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Market...-12153-3-1.html

Gold Reserves Compared to Money Supply According to the World Gold Council, at the end of 2006 the central banks of the 38 countries within these 25 economic areas held 24,170 tonnes of gold. This represents 91.3% of the gold held by all countries of the world. At current Gold Prices, the value of the gold held by these 38 countries is $749.2 billion. This suggests that, while official gold reserves as a proportion of broad money supply (M3) is barely 1.2%, the value of official central bank gold reserves equals 19.6% of the value of outstanding currency (M0) at present. M0 (US$bn) M1 (US$bn) M2 (US$bn) M3 (US$bn) Exchange (1USD = ) Date Taken EU 1,013.4 6,072.7 12,039.9 14,197.4 0.6355 EUR May-08 UK 99.1 1,990.7 3,291.1 3,882.3 0.5055 GBP May-08 US 832.6 1,388.3 7,688.1 13,800.0 1.0000 USD Jun-08 What I find astounding is that the total value of the central bank's gold barely covers the Americans bailout bill!! It makes gold seem almost insignificant when compared to the values stated in the table.

http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Gold-p...-12145-3-1.html BEIJING: Gold is glittering in China. China produced 152.505 mt of gold in the first seven months of 2008, up 5.22% from the same period a year ago. According to figures from the China Gold Association, primary production from gold mines totaled 124.776 mt,up 5.28% year on year. The value for the January-July gold output was Yuan 72.01 billion ($10.53 billion), up 90.60% from year on year. According to GFMS Ltd, the world's above-ground stocks of gold at the end of 2007 were 161,000 tonnes. Jewelry makes up the largest component of this inventory. Much of this is in the form of 'monetary jewelry' – most popular in India and south-east Asia – for which the value is based upon the content of gold rather than its artistic value. The total official gold holdings of the world's central banks represent over eighteen percent of the total inventory according to the Sept. 2008 release from the World Gold Council. That figure includes gold held by the International Monetary Fund and Bank of International Settlements. It stands at 29,783.9 metric tonnes I didn't realise how little gold the central banks actually had hold of, or how much of it was in the form of jewelry. And if China keep producing at that rate what implications will that have, if any?