YEREVAN, December 20. /ARKA/. World official gold holdings hit 31,491.1 tons in October 2012  2012, according to the “World Official Holdings: International Financial Statistics, December 2012” publication by the World Gold Council.

In late October the gold price was $1719. The total value of the world gold holdings stood at $1,740.4 billion.

World gold reserves in the Euro Area (including ECB) made up 64.1% of all reserves reaching 10,783.3 tons ($595.9 billion).
The highest gold holdings are concentrated in the USA- 8,133.5 tons (76.1% of all reserves) valued at $449.5 billion.

Germany is second in the list with 3,391.3 tons (73.2%) at $187.4 billion.

Top ten countries in the rating are also Italy, France, China, Switzerland, Russia, Japan and the Netherlands.

Russia’s reserves stood at 934.9 tons valued at $51.6 billion (9.8% of all reserves).

The gold holdings of the IMF totaled 2814 tons at $155.5 billion.

Global gold demand in Q3 2012 was 1,084.6 tonnes (t), down 11% from the record Q3 2011 figure of 1,223.5t., the quarterly publication by World Gold Council.  In value terms gold demand was 14.0% lower year on year at $57.6bn and the average gold price of $1,652/oz was down 3% on the record average Q3 2011 price.

Investment demand (the sum of ETFs and total bar and coin demand) was 429.9t, down 16% compared to the same quarter last year, but was 23% above the five year average. Demand in the jewellery sector was down 2.0% to 448.8t compared to 458.0t in the same quarter in 2011.
Central banks bought 97.6t in the quarter. In six out of the last seven quarters, central bank demand has been around 100t, which is a sharp increase from as recently as 2010. The year to date figure for central bank buying is up 9%.—0-