The weight of the reserves of 97 countries and a central bank of the world during the month of February 2019 were about 33.54 thousand tons, compared to 33.73 thousand tons by the end of 2018, which were registering a decline of 0.56%, equivalent to 187.3 tons.
According to the monitoring unit of the reports in the newspaper "AlEqtisadiah" that was based on data from the World Gold Council, 13 of the 97 countries have raised their gold reserves, which was led by Russia and China.
Russia raised its gold reserves by 1.8 per cent, or 37.4 tons, to 2,150.5 tons in February from 2,113 tons at the end of last year.
China increased its reserves by 1.2 percent to 21.8 tons to reach 1874.3 tons in February compared to 1852.5 tons by the end of 2018.
Although both Russia and China have increased their gold reserves in the first two months of 2019, they are still at the same position when compared to the world's largest reserves, as Russia ranked sixth and China ranked seventh.
Colombia also reported that its gold reserves increased by 47.4 per cent from 12.8 tons at the end of 2018 to 18.9 tons in February 2019, while "Argentina" by 12.7% from 54.8 tons to 61.7 tons, India by 1.4 per cent and Kazakhstan by 1.7 per cent.
On the other hand, 11 countries and a central bank recorded a decline in reserves, led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which fell by 73.1 percent from 378.7 tons at the end of 2018 to 102 tons in February 2019.
Mongolia's reserves fell by 10.2 per cent, the Czech Republic by 5 per cent, Tajikistan by 4.5 per cent and Uzbekistan by 3.5 per cent.
As for the largest countries in gold reserves, the United States of America came in first place with 8133.5 tons, followed by "Germany" with 3369.7 tons, then "International Monetary Fund" 2814 tons, Italy with 2451.8 tons, France with 2436 tons, then Russia and China.
Switzerland came with reserves of 1,040 tons, Japan with 765.2 tons, Netherlands with 612.5 tons, India with 608.7 tons, the European Central Bank at 504.8 tons, Taiwan with 423.6 tons, Portugal with 382.5 tons, Kazakhstan with 356.3 tons and Uzbekistan with 342.1 tons.
While Saudi Arabia with reserves of 323.1 tons, the United Kingdom with 310.3 tons, Lebanon with 286.3 tons and Spain with 281.6 tons.
* Economic Reports Unit
