Foreign Media: Gold May Have Surpassed U.S. Bonds to Become the Largest Official Reserve Asset

Odaily According to foreign media reports, driven by the surge in gold prices over the past year and active purchases by central banks worldwide, gold is expected to surpass U.S. Treasury bonds as the largest reserve asset held by foreign governments. Data released by the World Gold Council this month shows that the total global official gold reserves held by foreign governments exceed 900 million troy ounces (data for most countries is as of the end of November, while data for a few countries is as of the end of October). Based on the gold price on November 30th, this is equivalent to $3.82 trillion worth of gold. In comparison, as of October, the value of long-term and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds held by foreign governments was close to $3.88 trillion. Assuming central banks' gold reserves remain unchanged by year-end and valued at year-end prices, the value of global official gold reserves held by foreign governments would be $3.93 trillion, already exceeding the scale of U.S. Treasury bonds held by foreign official institutions.