The Netherlands’ central bank said it would be “better prepared for severe crises” after confirming this week that it has relocated tonnes of the nation’s gold from North America. To make the shiny stuff “readily available for use in a crisis situation,” some 86 tonnes of the roughly 313 tonnes kept in the US and Canada were moved to London “in view of increasing geopolitical unrest.”
There would inevitably be questions. Why did the Dutch act in this way? Were they expecting a significant economic shock? It may not seem like it, but the action was undoubtedly a reaction to the world’s current unstable and unpredictable situation, where nations are taking measures and keeping their gold closer to home due to trade and military conflicts.
France declared earlier this year that it has relocated its gold reserves from the United States to its own territory. Over the course of several years ending in 2016, Germany’s Bundesbank moved over 216 tonnes of the metal from storage facilities overseas, including 111 tonnes from New York and 105 tonnes from Paris.
It is a tactic previously used during periods of global unrest. Some European central banks moved part of their gold holdings to New York during the Cold War,” Goldman Sachs research analysts Lina Thomas and Daan Struyven stated.
The World Gold Council’s chief market strategist, Joseph Cavatoni, told the BBC that although trade disputes and conflicts were “playing into some of these decisions,” they did not “top the list” of driving forces.
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