SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) – Singapore elevated its gold reserves by about 20 per cent earlier this yr in a largely under-the-radar transfer that noticed holdings broaden for the primary time in a long time.
The purchases, which totaled about 26.3 tonnes, occurred over Might and June, in accordance with knowledge from the Financial Authority of Singapore’s Worldwide Reserves and Overseas Foreign money Liquidity stories. The transfer got here to wider prominence when it was picked up within the Worldwide Financial Fund’s month-to-month replace, which exhibits it was the primary enhance in figures courting again to 2000.
MAS did not disclose how a lot it paid for the bullion, however at immediately’s worth that will be about US$1.5 billion. The authority did not instantly reply to an e-mail searching for remark.
The central financial institution might have most popular to not draw consideration to the quantity of gold in its worldwide reserves as this may encourage foreign-exchange markets to view the acquisition as a transfer that strengthens the city-state’s reserve place and probably put upward stress on it is change charge, in accordance with a weblog publish by Ronan Manly, a valuable metals analyst at Singapore supplier BullionStar.