Two high-ranking Venezuelan officials are traveling to London with plans to meet with the Bank of England over the repatriation of $550 million in gold held in the bank’s coffers, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

The government of President Nicolas Maduro is seeking to bring 14 tonnes of gold back to Venezuela because of fears it could be caught up in international sanctions on the country, sources told Reuters this month.

The Reserve Bank of India’s gold purchase plan seems to be paying off as the monthly valuation gains have touched an eight month high with investor demand for a safe haven rallying the yellow metal.

The value of gold in the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose 1.7 per cent in three weeks from October 12 to November 2 at $20.9 billion. Gold prices rose 2 per cent during the same period.

The Bank of England is refusing to release Venezuela's gold bars, worth about $550 million or £420 million, back to Caracas, with British officials understood to have referred to "standard" anti-money laundering measures, The Times reports, citing unnamed sources.

Since in general the central bank gold market is ultra secretive and exempt from all manner of reporting, there is often not even any proof of anything much in the central bank gold market nor even any evidence in a lot of cases that the claimed trades have even taken place.

There is also no evidence that this central bank gold buying has any effect on the international gold price despite what, for example an article such as “Buying by central banks & ETFs set to propel gold prices higher” claims. So its instructive to look at some of this central bank gold buying and ask to what extent it could impact overall gold demand and could it have any impact on the gold price.

It was this rich mining heritage that Hungary’s central bank evoked when it announced this week its decision to increase gold holdings tenfold, from 3.1 metric tons to 31.5 tons, taking gold’s share of total reserves to 4.4 percent.

Hungarian central bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy described the move as one of “economic and national strategic importance,” adding that the extra gold made the country’s reserves “safer” and “reduced risk.”

In view of the long-term national and economic strategy goals, the Monetary Council of the National Bank of Hungary has decided to increase the gold reserves of the country.

As a result, in October 2018 the Bank’s precious metal holdings were raised from the previous 3.10 tonnes to 31.5 tonnes, a tenfold increase. This is the first time that the Hungarian National Bank has bought gold since 1986.

Following the substantial increase in the Bank’s gold reserves in physical form, its repatriation has already taken place. The possession of precious metal within the country is in line with international trends, supports financial stability and strengthens market confidence in Hungary.

Central banks have emerged as some of the biggest buyers of gold this year, with purchases hitting their highest level in six years, according to analysts at Macquarie.

Central banks have bought a total of 264 tonnes of gold this year, "by far the most at this stage of the year of any period in the last six years," the bank said.

While gold buying has been dominated by Russia, Turkey, and Kazakhstan, Poland also bought gold for the first time since 1998, Macquarie said.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has bought gold for the first time in nearly a decade, signalling that the metal could be in demand as a store of value when returns and capital values of fixed-income bonds are declining in a rising rate environment.

The RBI added 8.46 metric tonnes of gold to its stock of holdings during the financial year 2017-18 that ended June 30, taking the level of gold reserves to 566.23 metric tonnes, according to its latest annual report.

With Donald Trump close to re-instituting economic sanctions on Iran, it's worth remembering that gold served as a tool for skirting the the last round of Iranian sanctions. If a blockade were to be re-imposed on Iran, might this role be resuscitated?