The role of gold in central bank reserves

James Steel

A long history

Gold is enjoying something of a renaissance among central banks. Central banks are accumulating gold at a pace not seen since the last years of the Bretton Woods system in the late 1960s. We take a look at the drivers of this surge in demand, and whether it could continue.

Bretton Woods was an international agreement designed to keep the US dollar pegged to gold, and other currencies pegged to the US dollar. The system worked until there was a run on US gold reserves in the late 1960s, with massive amounts of gold moving from the US to European central banks as the US ran up

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