Dec 5, 2009
We’ve had the odd query from other New Zealanders asking “With all the recent reports of various Central Banks of the world buying gold, just how much gold does the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) actually have?”
So we thought we should publish the specifics. And we’re sorry to report folks, the news isn’t so great.
The RBNZ website has the following table: (We’ve highlighted the gold related part in blue. And the full table can be found here on the RBNZ website.)
New Zealand’s International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity
30 Sep 2009 (Information is disclosed in NZD 000′s) I. Official reserve assets and other foreign currency assets (approximate market value) A. Official reserve assets 19,994,933 (1) Foreign currency reserves (in convertible foreign currencies) 17,074,379 (a) Securities 15,079,813 of which: issuer headquartered in reporting country but located abroad - (b) total currency and deposits with: 1,994,566 (i) other national central banks, BIS and IMF 1,912,062 (ii) banks headquartered in the reporting country - of which: located abroad - (iii) banks headquartered outside the reporting country 82,504 of which: located in the reporting country - (2) IMF reserve position 382,538 (3) SDRs 1,598,884 (4) gold (including gold deposits and, if appropriate, gold swapped) - volume in fine troy ounces - (5) other reserve assets 939,132 financial derivatives 484,080 loans to non-bank non-residents - other 455,052
Last time I checked a dash didn’t mean that the number was too big to report but was rather a simple alternative for the number zero. So according to the RBNZ website, New Zealand has $0 worth of gold deposits from a grand total of zero fine troy ounces of gold.
Further confirmation of this comes from the World Gold Council. They periodically take information compiled by the IMF to create a ranking of gold deposits of countries.
The lazy mans research site – Wikipedia means we don’t have to look too hard for the latest figures though. The table below ranks each nation according to it’s officially reported gold holdings as of November 2009.
We can save you some time searching and state that unfortunately New Zealand does not feature – at all.
World official gold holding (November 2009)[11] Rank Country/Organization Gold
(tonnes)Gold’s share
of total
forex reserves (%)[11]1 United States
8,133.5 77.4% 2 Germany
3,408.3 69.2% 3 International Monetary Fund 3,005.3 - 4 Italy
2,451.8 66.6% 5 France
2,445.1 70.6% 6 China
1,054.0[12] 1.9% 7 Switzerland
1,040.1 29.1% 8 Japan
765.2 2.3% 9 Netherlands
612.5 59.6% 10 Russia
568.4 4.3% 11 India
557.7[6] 6% 12 European Central Bank 501.4 18.8% 13 Taiwan
423.6 3.9% 14 Spain
416.8 42.5% 15 Portugal
382.5 90.2% 16 Venezuela
363.9 35.5% 17 United Kingdom
310.3 18.7% 18 Lebanon
286.8 30.0% 19 Austria
280.0 50.5% 20 Belgium
227.5 42.5% 21 Algeria
173.6 3.6% 22 Philippines
153.9 12.3% 23 Libya
143.8 4.5% 24 Saudi Arabia
143.0 12.4% 25 Sweden
135.9 14.2% 26 Singapore
127.4 2.2% 27 Bank for International Settlements 125.0 - 28 South Africa
124.7 11.0% 29 Turkey
116.1 4.7% 30 Greece
112.5 92.8% 31 Romania
103.7 8.4% 32 Poland
102.9 5.0% 33 Thailand
87.4 2.2% 34 Australia
79.8 7.3% 35 Kuwait
79.0 11.9% 36 Egypt
75.6 6.4% 37 Indonesia
73.1 4.3% 38 Kazakhstan
72.0 11.6% 39 Denmark
66.5 4.7% 40 Pakistan
65.4 20.3% 41 Argentina
54.7 3.4% 42 Finland
49.1 17.6% 43 Bulgaria
39.9 7.6% 44 West African Economic and Monetary Union 36.5 11.8% 45 Malaysia
36.4 1.2% 46 Slovakia
35.1 81.6% 47 Peru
34.7 3.3% 48 Brazil
33.6 0.5% 49 Bolivia
28.3 10.3% 50 Ecuador
26.3 11.6% 51 Ukraine
26.2 2.0% 52 Syria
25.9 - 53 Morocco
22.0 2.2% 54 Nigeria
21.4 0.9% 55 Belarus
20.3 11.6% 56 Sri Lanka
15.3[7] 3.8% 57 Jordan
14.8 5.2% 58 South Korea
14.3 0.1% 59 Cyprus
13.9 29.7% 60 Czech Republic
13.2 0.9% 61 Netherlands Antilles
13.1 31.4% 62 Cambodia
12.4 12.9% 63 Qatar
12.4 2.6% 64 Serbia
12.2 2.3% 65 Laos
8.1 23.1% 66 Latvia
7.7 3.3% 67 El Salvador
7.3 8.2% 68 Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa 7.1 - 69 Guatemala
6.9 3.9% 70 Colombia
6.9 0.8% 71 Macedonia
6.8 7.6% 72 Tunisia
6.8 2.1% 73 Lithuania
5.8 2.3% 74 Ireland
5.5 16.3% 75 Mongolia
5.2 10.9% 76 Bahrain
4.7 - 77 Mauritius
3.9[8] 2.4% 78 Bangladesh
3.5 1.6% 79 Mexico
3.4 0.1% 80 Canada
3.4 0.2% 81 Slovenia
3.2 7.2% 82 Aruba
3.1 17.1% 83 Hungary
3.1 0.3% 84 Mozambique
3.0 4.6% 85 Kyrgyzstan
2.6 5.3% 86 Luxembourg
2.3 10.8% 87 Albania
2.2 2.6% 88 Hong Kong
2.1 0.0% 89 Iceland
2.0 1.9% 90 Tajikistan
2.0 - 91 Papua New Guinea
2.0 2.1% 92 Trinidad and Tobago
1.9 0.6% 93 Yemen
1.6 0.5% 94 Suriname
1.4 7.0% 95 Cameroon
0.9 - 96 Honduras
0.7 0.7% 97 Paraguay
0.7 0.6% 98 Dominican Republic
0.6 0.7% 99 Gabon
0.4 - 100 Republic of the Congo
0.3 - 101 Chad
0.3 - 102 Central African Republic
0.3 - 103 Uruguay
0.3 0.1% 104 Estonia
0.2 0.1% 105 Chile
0.2 0.0% 106 Malta
0.2 0.8% 107 Costa Rica
0.1 0.0%
It’s a bit of a worry when the Central African Republic of Chad, which the U.N. reports as the 5th poorest nation on the planet, has more gold reserves than we do!
They may come in at number 101 on the list and only have 0.3 tonnes but that’s 0.3 tonnes more than us! (Or about $15 Million NZD in Gold reserves more than New Zealand)
Just like we believe the average person should have at least a small percentage of their liquid net worth held in gold, we too think the RBNZ would be wise to convert some of it’s foreign currency reserves into real money to ensure a store of value in a time when currencies the world over are being depreciated at ever greater speed.
It would be interesting to see a table for private gold hold by country.
Scarey, I have more gold than the NZ Government!
Danny,
That would be an insightful piece of information alright. The World Gold Council does track Jewellery, Industrial and Investment demand but we are not aware of them itemizing the investment demand per country – probably because they don’t have the complete information in order to do so. As a large part of private investment in gold is in Over-the-Counter transactions, so it is very difficult to accurately measure.
Although undoubtedly India would be joined by China at the top and New Zealand would be a long way down the list. Also here’s a recent article on how China is about to take over top spot from India as the worlds top Gold consumer…
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLNE5B801V20091209?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=stocksNews&rpc=401&sp=true
Thanks for your comment.
GSG editors.