Central banks sign on to the importance of gold reserves

In 1999, the ECB, together with the eurozone, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK, agreed that gold should remain an important part of global monetary reserves. To that end, the nations agreed on limiting any future sales of the precious metal to 400 tonnes a year over the following five years. The agreement, which was signed at an annual International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington DC, was modified and extended several times until it was allowed to lapse in 2019 — even though the ECB asserted at the time that “gold remains an important element of monetary policy”.

Get more information on the Central Bank Agreement and the ECB from the World Gold Council.