Iraq maintains its 30th position in the world with the largest gold reserves
Iraq maintains its 30th position in the world with the largest gold reserves
2023-09-06 22:44
Shafaq News/ The World Gold Council revealed, on Wednesday, that Iraq has maintained its 30th rank in the world with the largest reserves of the yellow metal.
The most recent table of the Council for the current month of September 2023, seen by Shafaq News agency, showed that Iraq maintained its rank 30 globally out of 100 countries listed in the table with the largest reserves of gold, despite its purchase of 2.3 tons of gold in May, bringing its possession of gold to 132.6 tons, which represents 7.6 tons. % of his remaining reserves.
He added that Iraq ranked fourth in the Arab world with the largest gold reserves, after Saudi Arabia with 323.1 tons, Lebanon with 286.8 tons, Algeria with 173.6 tons, and Egypt with 125.9 tons.
He pointed out that the most central banks buying gold during the second quarter of 2023 was the share of Poland, as it bought 48.41 tons, followed by China at 45.10 tons, followed by the Czech Republic at 6.06 tons, and then Russia at 3.11 tons, while the most central banks of countries sold gold during this period. The period went to Turkey at 132.23 tons, followed by Tunisia at 18.50 tons, and then Uzbekistan at 4.04 tons.
Globally, according to the table, the United States of America still leads the rest of the countries with the largest possession of gold in the world, with 8,133 thousand tons, followed by Germany with 3,352 thousand tons, and then Italy came with 2,451 thousand tons, while Suriname ranked 100th with 1.5 tons, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with the same amount of 1.5 tons. .
Financial expert Muhammad al-Hassani said, “All countries, including Iraq, are trying to diversify their basket of currencies and gold to be an investment portfolio to reduce risks and sudden fluctuations that may occur as a result of crises or currency depreciation. It is a kind of hedge and gives monetary stability to the state.”
He added, “Countries do not rely heavily on gold in their investment portfolio, because it is a heavy commodity, not like other currencies that can be bought and sold quickly, so we see that some rich countries have gold, but their reserves of gold are almost constant, and they do not carry out buying and selling operations regularly.” Continuing like America, Germany and the United Kingdom.
On June 27, 2022, Iraq announced the purchase of new quantities of gold, amounting to approximately (34) tons, an increase of 35% over what was in its possession, while in May it announced its purchase of 2.3 tons of gold.
It is noteworthy that the World Gold Council, which is based in the United Kingdom, has extensive experience and deep knowledge of the factors causing market change, and its members consist of the largest and most gold mining companies in the world.
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