What this shows: the share of official reserve assets held in gold by
the world excluding the United States, 1970 to present. Higher means central
banks’ reserves are weighted towards gold; lower means towards foreign
exchange. Three episodes stand out — the 1970s–80 gold bull (peaking just
above 50%), the long dis-hoarding into the 2000s as FX reserves ballooned to a
trough near 6%, and the renewed buying since 2009 that has lifted the share
back above 20%.
How it is built (free data): the FT/WGC series is
gold value ÷ (gold value + FX reserves),
summed across all reporting countries except the US, with gold valued at
market prices. The World Gold Council’s gold-holdings workbook sits behind a
login, so this rebuild uses the closest free, machine-readable equivalent —
the IMF’s reserve statistics as republished by the World Bank
(World Development Indicators), summed across every reporting country bar the
US:
•
FI.RES.TOTL.CD
— total reserves, includes gold (IMF IFS)
•
FI.RES.XGLD.CD
— total reserves minus gold (IMF IFS)
• gold value =
total − excluding gold;
share = 100 × gold ÷ total.
The gold price shown in the stats strip is the World Bank
pink-sheet
annual average of the London fix (USD/troy oz).
About the dashed “nowcast” segment: the reserve data behind the
solid line is annual, so between annual releases the chart would stand
still while the gold price moved. The dashed segment estimates the current
share by holding the last known ex-US tonnage and FX reserves flat and
marking them to the latest monthly pink-sheet gold price. Central banks add
roughly 1,000t a year (~4% of the stock), so flat tonnage over a partial
year is a standard nowcast assumption — but it is an
estimate, not
observed data, and the next annual release replaces it. It can be toggled
off from the legend.
Why not monthly throughout? IMF IFS reserve data is monthly back to
1950 and the IMF’s IRFCL template reports gold in fine troy ounces
monthly from 2000 — but every IMF API is unreachable from this server, and
the one reachable mirror (the World Bank’s Data360) is frozen at a
July-2024 vintage and books gold at national (official) prices, which
understates gold several-fold in the 1970s–80s. The WDI annual series is
therefore the best free source that both matches the FT/WGC construction and
keeps updating.
Reading the chart: the series is annual — one point per year — so move
the crosshair for the exact figure, drag to pan, shift+drag to box-zoom, and
scroll (or drag the right-hand axis) to zoom. Because the FT/WGC benchmark
revalues every holding at market prices while the IMF historically books gold
at official prices, this free rebuild tracks the shape but runs a few points
lower through the early-1980s peak. Coverage grows over time as more
countries report to the IMF. Data may be revised.
Data:
chart data (JSON) ·
source series (CSV) ·
World Bank WDI