Sprott is a respected Canadian businessman and billionaire who has invested enormous sums of his wealth in gold, and is a proponent of Home storage Gold IRA. Basically, it's the Canadian version of John Paulson. The United States has the largest gold reserve in the world by a significant margin. The government has almost as many reserves as the next three countries with the largest gold reserves combined (Germany, Italy and France).Russia completes the top five.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is reported to have more gold reserves than Italy, but less than Germany. Gold has served as a medium of exchange, to varying degrees, for thousands of years. For much of the 17th and 20th centuries, paper money issued by national governments was called gold and acted as a legal claim to physical gold. International trade was carried out with gold.
For this reason, countries needed to maintain gold reserves for both economic and political reasons. No contemporary government requires that all its money be backed by gold. However, governments still house enormous quantities of ingots as a security measure against hyperinflation or another economic calamity. In fact, every year, governments increase their gold reserves, which are measured in metric tons, in hundreds of tons.
For companies, gold represents a basic asset used in medicine, jewelry and electronics. For many investors, both institutional and retail, gold is a hedge against inflation or recession. It continues to safeguard gold that belongs to other countries. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the custodian of gold owned by foreign governments, foreign central banks and official international organizations.
Inside a vault at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It is known to contain the largest amount of gold in the world. Gold reserves by country. S&P Global.
The Central Bank of Russia is trying to boost gold exports by paying below the market price. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Does the Federal Reserve own or hold gold? Gold has been used as a medium of exchange for thousands of years and, more recently, it has become the preferred store of value for the world's largest central banks. Central banks accumulate the precious metal because of its liquidity, which helps reduce balance sheet risk.
It is believed that gold allows central banks to preserve capital while at the same time diversifying their portfolios. The precious metal can also be moved relatively easily from one place to another. The International Monetary Fund has the third largest gold deposit, with 2,814 tons. The IMF retains the product because of its financial strength and to help cope with unforeseen events.
As I have told you many times before, Indians have long valued gold not only for its beauty and durability, but also as financial security. Indian households have the largest private gold reserves in the world, with an estimated 24,000 metric tons. That figure exceeds the combined official gold reserves of the United States, Germany, Italy, France, China and Russia.