Mexican Central Bank Quietly Buys 100 Tons of Gold

Published: Thursday, 5 May 2011 | 6:49 AM ET

Mexico has quietly purchased nearly 100 tons of gold bullion, as central banks embark on their biggest bullion buying spree in 40 years.

The purchase, reported in monthly data published by Mexico’s central bank, is the latest in a series of large gold buys by emerging market economies intent on diversifying reserves away from the faltering US dollar.

China, Russia and India have acquired large amounts of gold [GCCV1  1500.60    -14.70  (-0.97%)   ] in recent years, while Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bolivia have made smaller purchases.

Central banks became net buyers of gold last year after two decades of heavy selling – a reversal that has helped propel the price of bullion to a series of record highs.

On Wednesday gold was trading at about $1,510 a troy ounce, down 4 percent from a nominal record high of $1,575.79 reached on Monday.

As a result of Mexico’s purchase, central banks, sovereign wealth funds and other so-called “official sector” buyers are on track to record their largest collective purchase of gold since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, which pegged the value of the dollar to gold, in 1971.

GFMS, a precious metals consultancy, had predicted that the official sector would make net gold purchases of 240 tons this year, compared with a post-Bretton Woods peak of 276 tons in 1981.

Philip Klapwijk, GFMS executive chairman, told the Financial Times that forecast “might turn out to be conservative” in light of Mexico’s surprise move.

The reversal of two decades of gold selling marks the end of an era characterized by widespread faith in paper currencies and sovereign debt.

The dollar [.DXY  73.04    0.01  (+0.02%)   ] has plunged 10 percent against the world’s major currencies since January and is trading near an all-time low.

Mexico bought 93.3 tons of gold in February and March, according to the central bank, in a haul valued at $4.5 billion at current prices and equivalent to 3.5 percent of annual mined output.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves have ballooned since last summer, buoyed by its interventions in the currency market to prevent the peso from appreciating.

“[The buying] seems to confirm there’s an appetite now among emerging economies with large forex reserves to add to their gold reserves,” said Matthew Turner, precious metals strategist at Mitsubishi, the Japanese trading house.

“Gold is seen as one way in which to diversify away from the dollar or euro-denominated assets.”

Although gold has quintupled in value over the past decade, it has fallen back in recent days led by a 20 percent tumble in the price of silver.

Just as central banks unwittingly marked the bottom of the market a decade ago with large sales of gold from their reserves, some investors fear that the current rush to buy may signal a top.

《國際金融》反向指標？墨西哥、俄羅斯、泰國擴大黃金儲備

• 2011-05-05 16:27
 
• 時報資訊
 
• 【時報-記者柯婉琇綜合外電報導】

《彭博社》周四報導，因為金價迭創新高，美元持續疲弱不振及政府公債吸引力下滑，墨西哥、俄羅斯和泰國在二、三月間總共添購現值高達60億美元的黃金儲備。惟根據歷史經驗，央行進場搶購黃金，恐是多頭接近尾聲的訊號。

　根據國際貨幣基金(IMF)公布的資料，墨西哥自一月起共買進93.3公噸黃金，原有的黃金儲備只有6.9噸。墨西哥央行稍後表示，近幾個月來共買進100噸黃金。俄羅斯三月提高黃金儲備18.8噸，達811.1噸，同月份泰國的黃金儲備增加9.3噸，為108.9噸。

　金價在鮑爾森(John Paulson)等炒作大戶追捧下已展開自1920年算起延續最久的多頭行情，吸引各國央行積極擴大黃金資產，為近幾十年來首見。不過，他們也曾在1980年提高黃金儲備，但是金價在創下當時的歷史新高850美元後急轉向下，在接下來的20年內跌多漲少。

　黃金現貨價格在5月2日創下歷史新高1577.57美元，今(5/5)日於新加坡早盤則在1516.75美元附近波動。今年以來金價累計上漲6.8%，過去十年也是呈現上漲趨勢。根據世界黃金協會，全球政府及IMF等官方組織四月以前持有的黃金達30,523噸。