Why Does the IMF Have Gold?
Gold flows between the Fund and its members can occur through various mechanisms. These may include initial quota payments from member nations to the Fund, gold restitutions paid back into it by their governments or payments of financial obligations paid out in gold.
Strictly limited sales of Fund gold will help the IMF secure its finances and increase its capacity to provide concessional lending to low-income countries. Furthermore, these sales won’t disrupt global markets.
It is a store of value
IMF gold holdings currently hold a market value of approximately $170 billion, well in excess of their historic cost on its balance sheet. This has lead to calls that the Fund sell some of this gold to meet pressing global needs without disrupting global gold markets; Oxfam estimates that half the gold sold could help alleviate poverty in several low-income countries.
The Fund currently holds gold deposits at various designated depository banks across New York and London, having amassed them through initial quota subscriptions by Members between 1946 and the late 1970s, subsequent quota increases, gold restitution payments and other methods.
Modest IMF gold sales could help the Fund strengthen its role in aiding Sub-Saharan African nations and LICs while simultaneously serving U.S. national interests. Such sales would need to be conducted transparently and orderlyly with all proceeds going back into member accounts according to their quotas.
It is a hedge against inflation
Gold serves as a store of value, which helps investors protect their savings against inflation and currency devaluation. Many countries buy gold to prevent hyperinflation; this practice can lower risk associated with currency crises.
IMF gold depositories can be found in New York, London, Shanghai and Paris and allow each member country to store its gold subscription at one of these four facilities or request it be stored elsewhere, such as South Africa.
IMF maintains statistics on national gold reserves and ranks them according to size. Unfortunately, however, this ranking cannot be considered perfect because some countries fail to report their holdings while others report inaccurate data; nonetheless, its rankings serve as a useful indicator of each nation’s relative importance when it comes to holding gold stocks – for instance France and China hold more gold than Russia or India do.
It is a safe haven
Gold has long been considered a safe haven against inflation and recessions, even after most nations stopped backing their currencies with it in the mid 1900s. Today, however, some governments still maintain large stockpiles of bullion as an insurance against hyperinflation or any economic disaster – including IMF holding 2,814 tons worldwide in its vaults.
Gold holdings provide fundamental strength to the IMF’s balance sheet and serve as an intermediary for lending by its member countries to low-income countries, as well as acting as an insurance policy against sovereign default.
The Fund can only sell gold under special circumstances and with approval by 85 percent of its Executive Board. Reducing concerns over disruption to the gold market is of particular significance given that most of IMF gold is held as bullion that’s highly susceptible to market movements.
It is a backstop for creditor claims
The IMF derives its income primarily from its members in the form of their quota subscriptions and multilateral and bilateral arrangements, supplemented with resources obtained from gold holdings as a backstop against creditor claims that provide backstopping services; these funds support non-concessional lending to its member countries in times of need – unlike its gold reserves which cannot be lent out as general loan guarantees to low income countries (LICs).
In 1999-2000, the IMF sold approximately one-eighth of its gold holdings to various central banks as part of a debt relief initiative known as Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, and placed any profits generated from these sales into their Special Disbursement Account.
Small IMF gold sales could put it on firmer financial footing and strengthen its role in helping low-income countries cope with crises. Furthermore, such sales would support its new income model and strengthen concessional balance-of-payments lending capacity to LICs; ultimately these profits could help decrease its reliance on borrowing for administrative expenses.
Categorised in: Blog