"Perhaps I'm missing something, but in all the hubbub about the European Debt Crisis, I've not heard any mention of the troubled countries selling any of their gold reserves. I know that there is an international agreement to limit annual sales, but considering the circumstances I would think that might be considered a possibility. I mention this after perusing the World Gold Council listing of gold reserves by country and noticing that at least 3 of the troubled countries are in the top 20 countries listed."

David Fuller's view Interesting point. They could, of course, and did sell steadily, up to 500 tonnes in total per annum for a number of years when the price was low. The new limit is 400 tonnes a year but central bank sales all but dried up last year. The IMF has done most of the gold selling over the last two years, disposing of 403.3 tonnes.


Of the Southern European countries that are experiencing upward pressure on their 10-year bond yields, Italy has 2,451.8 tonnes of gold, according to the World Gold Council data on gold reserves which I posted on Friday.

I asked our Italian colleague Michele Affortunati of Stockcube Research if there was any talk of Italy selling more of its gold. He said there was very little discussion of further gold sales that he was aware of but that the Italian government owned a great deal of property, some of which could be sold. Michele kindly produced this Italian to English translation.