The RBA couldn't care less if the gold is there or not, as they plan to sell it all for digital credit. In 1997 RBA held 247 tonnes. Then sold 167 tonnes just as the prices started moving up. In 2017/18 RBA sold another 12 tonnes right before the price skyrocketed in AUD. Now we are left with only 68 tonnes. (assuming they even have that) Either these guys are compete idiots or they clearly work for someone else. Either way not great for Australia. Mean while China and Russia keep stacking.
"The Bank of England (BoE) is refusing to release around $550 million in gold owned by Venezuela back to the country over the UK regulator's claim of growing uncertainty about Caracas’s intentions for the 14 tons of gold bars" https://www.rt.com/business/443516-boe-refuse-venezuela-gold/
They didn't sell it, they leased it. WGC gets its wrong https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/monthly-central-bank-statistics because they only look at "physical gold" reported by CBs and as Australia is one of the few which breaks out physical vs leased, it shows up as a reduction. Many other CBs lease gold but don't break it out so as far as WGC is concerned those all show as physical and no reductions. I will have to write to WGC to get them to fix it up and report consistently.
While you're at it maybe send a message to https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/gold-reserves too. Assuming they are not just referencing off WGC.
I don't fully understand why gold is 'leased'. The risk/reward doesn't seem to make any sense at all. The only possible reason I can think of is to have it sitting on some other country's books, while it possibly remains stored with the BoE. Which sounds more like cooking the books. I don't think I'd get any SS members to lease me their PM's if I offered them a fraction of a percent per year.
I was only just reading this the other day when I was checking out how much we had in reserve. It goes some of the way at explaining our gold leasing. https://www.rba.gov.au/qa/gold-holding.html
I meant perhaps for others to use as collateral for loans, but that makes no sense at all. Still not quite sure the purpose of gold lending by Central banks.
Printing press, get with the times. They will be buying the new Logitech G915 RGB keyboards with reinforced 0 and Enter keys. They will be adding as many zeros as possible, day and night. (The night shift guys work in the dark with only RGB lights from keyboard) that way the RBA can save on power bills, since they like going out of their way for small insignificant gains.
They don't borrow the gold, they lend their gold out There are only two purposes for borrowing gold. #1 By a business making stuff out of gold to fund their working inventory. In this case the recent RBA FOI by Bullion Baron reveals that the borrower of RBA's gold was the Perth Mint. #2 To sell it short or to support various other short derivatives.
Makes sense that Perth Mint would buy physical gold and short paper contracts to gold, therefore hedging against price fluctuation. I guess i don't see why a central bank bother lending out gold for a small return. A return that is meaningless for them. I wonder what shell games are being played at the BoE. Maybe they are trying to pull together Venezuela's gold Every account at the BoE has to chip in.