"Households in Germany have lifted their holdings of gold, meaning, along with the central bank, the country now holds 6.5 per cent of worldwide gold reserves. Deutsche Presse Agentur APRIL 16, 201911:37AM With interest rates low and stocks considered a risky bet, German households are placing ever more of their hopes in gold. Private individuals hold 8,918 tonnes of the rare metal in total, up 246 tonnes from 2016, said researchers at the Steinbeis Research Centre for Financial Services, who conducted the research for Germany's Reisebank and based the estimate on surveys with 2,000 households. Some 4,928 tonnes were held in gold bars and coins and the rest in jewellery. Nearly three quarters of all Germans said they held gold, either in jewellery, coins or investment vehicles like Xetra-Gold on the Frankfurt stock exchange or Euwax Gold in Stuttgart. German stock exchange operator Deutsche Boerse has also reported record investments in gold, with nearly 181.5 tonnes sitting in their vaults at the end of 2018. The Reisebank survey found that 39 per cent of Germans chose to keep gold in safe deposits at a bank. Put together with the German central bank's gold reserves, which stood at 3,370 tonnes at the end of last year, Germany holds about 6.5 per cent of worldwide gold reserves, worth 458 billion euros ($A722 billion) at the start of April. The uptick in holdings comes despite gold prices falling off their record high of $US1,921 per ounce reached back in 2011." https://www.news.com.au/world/break...d/news-story/88b476405d53bc1cbc1a9b1b589f8370
The Chinese don’t really hold that much gold as compared to South East Asians and South Asians. The rich Chinese do hoard property leading to the most expensive housing prices relative to income, and causing all sorts of social problems and falling fertility. In China, a man can only get a partner if he owns an apartment.
Germans are a tad cautious compared to other nations and given they have had five different fiat currencies since 1914 (not inc the East German Mark) and with issues arising re Deutsche Bank (which may require a German Govt bail out funded by increased taxes or QE) and the foundations of the EU not as solid as they once were with the rise of the political right in EU member countries looking at Brexit and arguing for same, Germans and the German Govt are probably buying some financial insurance should the economy hit hard times or the EU falls apart (along with the Euro). A lot of West Germans are still smarting from the economic hit to their standard of living when West Germans funded the reunification with East Germany. This saw the old East Germany seeing a huge rise in their standard of living and effective zero growth in the old West Germany given the money flowing West to East which to since 1989 has run to circa EUR2.0 trillion. Thus if they see / think the German govt may have to pay out big EUR to save a bank / support other EU members, then buying gold to hedge against adverse national / EU economic conditions makes sense.
German private individuals holding 8,918 tonnes left me speechless. That's more than the USA's official gold reserves (if they still have the gold). About 6-7 years ago, the "Steinbeis Research Center for Financial Services" in Berlin has conducted a research for Heraeus in which they've found that the average German owns around 117 grams of gold or 5,750 EUR-worth of gold. Quite a nice collection. But I'm sure that a smaller percentage of the population (with villas in Mallorca and the Canary Islands...) own most of that gold.
