Edited by: Nada Adel Sobhi
Mubasher: It is common knowledge that many countries’ central banks prefer to keep gold reserves owing to the precious metal’s safe-haven status during times of economic or financial turbulence and uncertainty.
The UAE, for one, had stopped racking gold for a few years, only to resume the trend in April 2015. The UAE’s holdings of gold have fallen by 8.6% or AED 99 million ($26.949 million) in the first nine months of 2018 to AED 1.053 billion ($290 million) from AED 1.152 billion ($310 million) by the end of December 2017.
Arab rankings
With $290 million in gold reserves, the UAE ranks 74th globally and 11th among its Arab neighbours with 7.5 tonnes of gold or 0.3% of its total reserves, data released by the World Gold Council showed.
Saudi Arabia topped its Arab peers with 323.1 tonnes or 7.7% of its total reserves. At the global scale, the kingdom ranked 16th.
Lebanon came in second in the Arab world and 17th globally in terms of gold holdings with 286.8 tonnes, which represent 19.5% of its reserves.
Algeria came in third among Arab countries and 24th globally with 173.6 tonnes, representing 7.1% of its reserves.
Libya, Iraq, and Kuwait ranked 4th, 5th, 6th, among their Arab peers with 116.6 tonnes, 89.8 tonnes, and 79 tonnes, respectively, according to the World Gold Council.
Globally, Libya ranked 23rd, while Iraq and Kuwait came in 37th and 38th, respectively.
Egypt came in 7th in the Arab world with 77.4 tonnes of gold, or around 6.8% of its reserves, and 40th globally.
Global ranking
The United States continues to hold the largest gold reserves in the world with 8,133.5 tonnes or around 73.4% of its reserves.
Germany came in second globally with 3,369.7 tonnes, representing 68.8% of its reserves, followed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with 2,814 tonnes of gold in its possession.
Central bank purchases
In terms of purchasing the precious metal, central banks in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey were the top buyers in the third quarter of 2018.
