Uzbekistan becomes world leader in gold sales

By Trend

From January to March 2019, the largest sellers of gold were Uzbekistan with 6.2 tons of this precious metal sold, Mongolia - 3.4 tons, and Tajikistan - 1 ton, Trend reports with reference to the latest report by the World Gold Council.

The leader in the purchases of gold was Russia. In the first quarter of this year, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation purchased 55.3 tons of gold bringing the volume of gold reserves to 2,168.3 tons. In the report, this tendency is associated with Russia's intention to reduce its dependence on the US dollar in the case of the introduction of new sanctions.

Furthermore, during this period, large volumes of gold were acquired by the Central Banks of Turkey (40.1 tons), China (33 tons), Kazakhstan (11.2 tons), Ecuador (10.6 tons), Qatar (9.4 tons), India (8.4 tons) and Colombia (6.1 tons).

In total, in 1Q2019, the national banks of the countries world-wide acquired 145.5 tons of gold, which is a record over the past six years and 68 percent more than in the same period last year.

According to the report, last year 6.4 tons of gold were extracted in Tajikistan, which became a record volume for the country. As reported by the Ministry of Industry, all gold produced in the country is acquired by the National Bank of Tajikistan.

Uzbekistan is ready to increase gold exports to 80 tons in 2019, which is 10 tons more than in the previous year.

As was reported earlier, in the next five years, the country intends to increase gold reserves by 474 tons worth $18.7 billion at the expense of geological exploration. This year the increase in gold reserves is expected to reach 89.7 tons.

In 2020-2024, the country plans to invest about $230 million in the search, evaluation and exploration of new deposits.