In September 2011, Venezuela had $21.269 billion in gold reserves. After a rash of selling gold in Switzerland to pay bonds maturities and coupons in early 2016 (which we tracked assiduously and reported on in these reports), Venezuela's gold reserves had fallen to $7.7 billion where they held steady until November 2017. But as we reported in October of 2017, there were loans backed by gold that Venezuela had taken out that were coming due. As we reported last month, in the last two months of 2017, Venezuela had lost $1.1 billion in gold and reported that they held $6.6 billion in gold on December 31. In January, Venezuela's gold reserves fell another $500 million.

As of January 31, Venezuela had just $6.1 billion in gold reserves, down another half billion from the $6.6 billion Venezuela reported a month earlier on December 31. In short, Venezuela burned through $1.6 billion of its gold reserves in 3 months, and it is important to note that this fall in gold reserves is without Venezuela paying its bond debts.