– China could purchase the total United States gold reserve (8133 metric tonnes) with 8% of its foreign exchange reserves.
– It could purchase the total global gold reserve (31,866 metric tonnes) with 32% of its foreign exchange reserves.
– It could purchase all the gold stored by Exchange Traded Funds (+/- 1750 metric tonnes) with less than 2% of its foreign exchange reserves.
– At $4900 per troy ounce, the value of U.S. gold reserves would match China’s U.S. Treasury holdings of roughly $1.28 trillion.
– At $4700 per troy ounce, the value of the world’s gold reserves would match China’s total foreign exchange reserves of roughly $4 trillion.
– To put it another way, China could pay double the current price for the world’s total gold reserve and still have nearly $1.5 trillion in foreign exchange reserves.
– China sits atop the list of the world’s foreign exchange holdings. The United States ranks thirteenth at $133 billion. For the United States to ascend to the top of the rankings, it would need to revalue its $319 billion gold reserve to almost $4 trillion – or raise the value to just under $15,300 per troy ounce.