Central banks continued to load up on gold in the first half, helping push total bullion demand to a three-year high, according to the World Gold Council.

Nations added 374.1 tons in the first six months as Russia and China kept building reserves and Poland made a massive purchase. The trend is expected to continue, with a recent survey of central banks showing 54% of respondents expect global holdings to climb in the next 12 months.

The European Central Bank says it and 21 national central banks in Europe are letting an agreement regulating gold sales expire, saying the deal struck two decades ago to stabilize the market for the precious metal is no longer needed.

“If the appeal of cryptocurrencies is their capacity to provide a common currency, and to maintain a uniform value for every issued unit, we need only consult historical experience to ascertain that these same qualities were achieved through the classical international gold standard,”

In an increasing globe trend, we note with interest the following statements made by the National Bank of Poland (NBP). Between 2005 and 2019, the NBP’s gold holdings increased by 125.7 tonnes to 228.6 tonnes and they also confirmed that nearly 50% of Polish gold will be repatriated to their country.

However what is even more telling is that, 95 tons of this increase can be attributed only to the month of June this year.

Venezuela has defaulted on a gold swap agreement valued at $750 million with Deutsche Bank AG, prompting the lender to take control of the precious metal which was used as collateral and close out the contract, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The Philippines is joining a slew of central banks that are increasing gold holdings in foreign reserves.

Sales to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas could reach almost 1 million fine troy ounces a year from the current 20,000 to 30,000 ounces as a new law that exempts taxes on the monetary authority’s bullion purchases from small-scale miners takes effect, according to Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo.

India’s central bank is likely to join counterparts in Russia and China scooping up gold this year, adding to its record holdings and lending support to worldwide bullion demand as top economies diversify their reserves.

Gold was considered as a reserve of the third category for all banks, from central to commercial ones, where the reserves were, first of all, in dollars and bonds of the US. The norms of Basel III demand an increase, first of all, in monetary reserves. This impeded the volumes of monetary resources of banks that could be used to carry out expansion, but it was a compulsory measure for saving the stability of a world banking system that showed to be insufficient in a crisis.

Italy’s ruling populists pushed ahead this week with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves, stepping up their confrontation with a symbol of the country’s establishment.

But in what was a huge missed opportunity for the Australian politicians to actual ask some tough and probing questions about the Australian gold reserves stored abroad (as was detailed in the RT article), the Australian Standing Committee on Economics gave the RBA governor and deputy governor an easy ride, let them off the hook, and incredibly, could not come up with even one decent question. Despite this, the RBA bosses squirmed and paused, and the whole session degenerated into an at times hilarious farcical chatter reminiscent of a bunch of Aussie mates having a Friday evening drink.