After a year, Bundesbank repatriates only 37 of 700 tonnes of gold

1:16p ET Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

While Germany's Bundesbank announced a year ago that it would repatriate most of the 700 tonnes of gold it has vaulted with foreign central banks, the Berlin newspaper Bild reported yesterday that only 37 tonnes have been repatriated so far:

http://www.bild.de/geld/wirtschaft/bundesbank/holt-deutsches-gold-zuruec...

Even that much repatriation was to involve only 20 percent of the German gold reserves held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and repatriating even that small fraction was going to require seven years.

Zero Hedge notes the Bild report with some acerbic commentary today.

The pace of the Bundesbank's gold repatriation, Zero Hedge says, "would make a snail proud."

"Since the price of gold has tumbled in 2013 (according to many, driven in part by the Bundesbank's own demand, which would make procuring gold in the open market for the U.S. and French central banks that much easier for subsequent dispatch to Frankfurt) and one would assume that there would be many more sellers than buyers of physical, why would the Bundesbank not be able to obtain a far greater share of the gold? Unless, of course, neither New York nor Paris actually have free, unencumbered physical gold in their possession -- with most of it leased out to various even closer "partners" -- and are scrambling to procure as much physical as they can find at the new low, low prices. (Thank you, paper-gold ETF dumping.)"

Zero Hedge's commentary is headlined "A Year Later the Bundesbank Has Repatriated Only 37 Tons Of Gold (0f 700 Total)" and it's posted here:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-24/year-later-bundesbank-has-repat...

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.