An interesting article considering the past two years I’ve heard pundits largely talking about how much gold banks were selling. The IMF announced big sales last year and the gold market didn’t budge. Other central banks snapped it right up at market prices:

Central Banks Stashing Away Gold at Brisk Pace

Central banks around the world added 425.4 metric tons of gold to their reserves last year, the biggest increase since 1964, according to the World Gold Council.

That represents a 1.4 percent gain to put their holdings at 30,116.9 tons in total. The increase was the first since 1988.

A 1.4 percent gain isn’t what I’d call Earth shattering. Yet, when I hear these central banks out pronouncing their faith in the US Dollar it makes me wonder if they really believe it themselves. They’ve got their frontman talking about the dollar being a great reserve currency, yet they’re wheeling gold bars out the back door into their vaults to diversify.

Actually that’s not bad advice. Maybe they’ve been listening to Harry Browne’s shows?

Is this actionable information? No. The Permanent Portfolio holds enough gold that I would just keep things as is. This is more of a piece of knowledge that confirms what many of us probably suspected already with respect to gold and central banks being large buyers.

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