Not sure how accurate these up to date numbers are...China and Russia have been buying heavily and none of this includes how much gold these nations might have leased....nonetheless it is interesting....
Central banks have been diversifying their foreign reserves to include gold.
We pulled the numbers on the 10 biggest official reserves.
Note: CBGA refers to the Central Bank Gold Agreements. The first Agreement (CBGA 1) ran from September 27, 1999 to September 26, 2004. The second Agreement (CBGA 2) ran from September 27, 2004 to September 26, 2009. The third Agreement (CBGA 3) will run for five years from September 2009.
10. India 
Official gold holdings: 557.7 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
9.9 percent
The Reserve Bank of India is known to buy IMF gold and considers
gold to be a safe investment,
but rarely comments on its plans to buy it. Meanwhile, the government has been
trying to deter
people from purchasing the precious metal. Gold imports are blamed for the nation's deficit.
9. Netherlands
Official gold holdings: 612.5 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
59.2 percent.
Back in 1999, the Netherlands announced under the Central Bank Gold Agreement (CB GA1)
that it would sell 300 tonnes of gold during the next five years, but only managed to sell 235 tonnes.
Under CBGA2 (2004/2005 –'08/'09) it said it would sell a total of 165 tonnes (which included the 65
tonnes left over from CBGA1), and it announced no sales under CBGA3 (from 2008/2009 – '13/'14).
8. Japan 
Official gold holdings: 765.2 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
3.2 percent
Japan's gold reserves were at just 6 tonnes in 1950, and its central bank registered its first serious
jump in gold holdings in 1959, with purchases increasing by 169 tonnes from the previous year.
In 2011, the Bank of Japan sold gold to
pump ¥20 trillion into the economy to calm investors after
the tsunami and nuclear disaster.
7. Russia
Official gold holdings: 969.9 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
9.8 percent
Russia has been
building its gold reserves since 2006 to diversify its Forex reserves, and
to help build the ruble as an international reserve currency. In 2012, Russia added around 75
tonnes to its reserve holdings, mostly by purchasing domestically produced gold.
6. Switzerland 
Official gold holdings: 1,040.1 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
10.5 percent
In 1997 proposals were announced to sell a portion of the country's gold reserves because they
were no longer considered to be "necessary for monetary policy purposes," according to the World
Gold Council.
1,300 tonnes were considered to be surplus gold and the country began selling this in May
2000. 1,170 tonnes were sold under CB GA1, and 130 tones were sold under CBGA2. Switzerland
has announced no plans to sell gold under CBGA 3.
5. China 
Official gold holdings:
1,054.1 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold: 1.7 percent
Gold still accounts for a very small percent of China's $3.2 trillion in foreign exchange reserves,
compared with the international average of 10 percent.
Building up gold reserves will be crucial to China as it moves to
internationalize its currency, and
hopes to make it a reserve currency, according to the
Financial Times.
4. France 
(Photo by Franck Prevel/Getty Images)
Official gold holdings: 2,435.4 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
69.2 percent
France sold 572 tonnes of gold under CBGA 2, and outside of the agreement France transferred
about 17 tonnes to the Bank for International Settlements in late 2004 as part purchase of
BIS shares. France announced no plans for sales of gold reserves under CBGA 3.
3. Italy
Official gold holdings: 
2,451.8 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
72.2 percent
Italy sold no gold under CBGA 1 or 2 and has announced no sales under CBGA3. But in 2011,
Italian banks were looking to the Bank of Italy to buy gold and
bolster their balance sheets ahead of
stress tests.
2. Germany 
Official gold holdings: 3,391.3 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
72.7 percent
Germany sold gold under CBGA 1 and 2 for the purposes of minting commemorative gold coins.
In the first year of CBGA3 (2008 - 2009), the Bundesbank sold approximately 6 tonnes, and it has
sold
4.7 tonnes of gold since September 7, 2011. There haven't been any changes in Germany's
gold holding of late, but the Bundesbank announced in January that it was going to
repatriate all of its
physical reserves at Paris and the New York Fed.
1. United States 
Official gold holdings: 8,133.5 tonnes
Percent of foreign reserves in gold:
75.6 percent
The U.S. had its largest gold reserves in volume terms in 1952, when reserves totaled 20,663
tonnes. Holdings first fell below the 10K mark in 1968.
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