Bloomberg on Russia's gold reserves: Moscow prepares for zombie apocalypse

Russia, China and a number of other states are increasing their gold reserves. The loss of confidence in the United States is one of the reasons for this.

According to the World Gold Council, central banks around the world bought 400 metric tons of gold in September 2022. An annual amount of gold was thus purchased in one month.

Such a state of affairs can be compared with how people behave on the eve of a zombie apocalypse, the article in Bloomberg said.

First, one needs to stock up water, canned food and firearms and then get some gold to be able to obtain essential items afterwards, the author of the article said.

The move of a number of Wester states to freeze the reserves of the Russian Central Bank caused confidence in the dollar, the euro and bonds to decline. Everyone could see that their assets could be blocked in a blink of an eye.

However, the interest in gold started rising. Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt have increased their gold purchases. Gold has always been a safe and reliable investment.

"Bullion does have one crucial advantage: unlike bonds, it doesn't bind you into a relationship with an unreliable counterparty," the article says.

US dollar falls in central banks

Meanwhile, the share of the US dollar in the reserves of central banks has been declining. In late 2016, it amounted to 65 percent, but in early 2022, it dropped to 59 percent. It looks like the trend will persist.

Earlier, former CIA adviser James Rickards noted that Russia's gold reserves had a unique peculiarity compared to those of G7 members. Russia's gold reserves do not set any world records, but they do make a huge figure based on Russia's GDP. The Russian Federation is a true gold power in comparison with the countries of the Group of Seven, Rickards noted. Gold is a safe and reliable asset: it cannot be "frozen" on accounts and it is impossible to track its flows, Rickards added.