Germany’s daily Deutsche Welle reported that the Bundesbank is firm on the path of the gold repatriation program launched in 2013. The program is aimed at partial relocation of German gold from vaults abroad.
“We are within the plan with our delivery of gold from the Fed and Banque de France,” Bundesbank “gold” executive Carl-Ludwig Thiele told the German Press Agency in Frankfurt.
Before starting the gold repatriation program, German gold possessions held within the country accounted for less than 1/3 of its total gold reserves. The rest of gold bullions were kept in finance institutions in Paris, New York, and London.
Deutsche Bundesbank’s program sets out phased deliveries back to Germany of over half of the total 3,387 tons in gold bars until 2020. Last year, 5 tons returned to Frankfurt from New York and 32 tons – from Paris.
It was possible to return only a small amount of gold due to logistics problems, Henner Asche, the Bundesbank’s deputy head of markets, commented on the slow progress. Next year, Germany’s central bank is going to transfer from 30 to 50 tons from the U.S. vaults and 50 tons from Paris. The gold reserves held in London will remain unchanged. According to the German news agency DPA, Germany is ranked second in the world in terms of gold possessions. The U.S. holds the most sizable gold reserves.
