Top 5 Countries With The Highest Gold Reserves

In this article, we are looking at the top 5 countries which have the highest gold reserves. For our readers' reference, we have also mentioned what percentage its gold holdings form of the respective country's total foreign reserves. This data is based on the World Gold Council's April 2013 report.

The value of gold holdings is calculated using the end of month London PM fix gold price published daily by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). At the end of February 2013, the gold price was USD 1588.5/troy ounce (t.oz.) Data for the value of other reserves are taken from the IFS table 'Total Reserves minus Gold'.

United States: United States, the world's largest economy, also has the world's highest gold reserves of 8133.5 tonnes, which form a significant 75.1% of the country's total foreign reserves.

Germany: Germany is the largest economy in the European region and has gold reserves of 3391.3 tonne. This accounts for around 72.1% of the total foreign reserve of the country.

Italy: A few days ago, there was a lot of talk about how Italy may be the next in line to sell its gold reserves for a bailout if Cyprus sells its gold, which sparked off an atmosphere of panic. This is because Italy has a reserve of 2451.8 tonne of gold, which constitutes 71.3% of the country's total foreign reserves.

France: France is the third country from Europe to feature in this list. It has gold reserves of 2435.4 tonne, which makes up 69.5% of the total foreign reserves of the country.

China: With gold reserves of 1054.1 tonne, which is a miniscule 1.6% of the total foreign reserves of the country, the dragon economy has featured as the fifth country in the list.

India: With a gold reserve of 557.70 tonne, India has secured the tenth spot in the list. Its gold holdings as a percentage of the total foreign reserves stand at 9.6%.