India may have sold US T-bills to buy gold

[The Northerner]

RBI may’ve sold US T-bills to buy gold
7 Nov 2009, 0217 hrs IST, ET Bureau
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MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) may have sold US Treasuries to fund its gold purchase from the International Monetary Fund. Last week,

RBI purchased 200 tonnes of IMF gold for $6.7 billion, increasing the share of gold in its reserves by 250 basis points.

“This purchase suggests that the Indian monetary authorities are seeking to change the composition of their foreign reserve holdings, most likely diversifying away from US Treasury securities,” said Nikhilesh Bhattacharya, an economist with the research arm of ratings firm Moody’s in a report. He added that the move was prudent as India needed liquid assets as a buffer against sudden, destabilising capital outflows.

The central bank has, however, refrained from disclosing the details of the transaction in its weekly statistical supplement released on Friday. According to the RBI release, total foreign exchange reserves including gold and SDR (special drawing rights—the reserve currency with IMF) dipped $1.129 billion to $284.4 billion during the week ended October 30. While foreign currency assets dipped $1.580 billion, the value of SDR dipped $25 million. The value of gold in reserves rose $484 million to $10.8 billion.

Going by the current composition of reserves comprising various foreign currency assets, SDR, gold and reserves with the IMF, gold which is valued at the month-end bullion prices at the London bullion exchange has for long hovered around $10 billion and roughly accounts for 4% of the total reserves.

Had last week’s purchase been reflected in the latest reserves figures, the value of gold would have gone up by at least 50%. One would also know how the central bank has funded this purchase. According to an RBI official, the purchase was out of the foreign currency assets and not SDR.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/RBI-mayve-sold-US-T-bills-to-buy-gold/articleshow/5205038.cms

[Craftsman]

1. Smart move on their part.

[madrchsod]

2. so the world economy is going back to the gold standard

i wonder how that`s going to work out?

[Art_from_Ark]

3. Gold standard ends with shortage of money (gold)

Fiat money standard ends with excessive amounts of money and severe inflation, and maybe even currency demonetization.