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Germany Brings Gold Reserves Back from Paris | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Gold bars at the Bundesbank in Frankfurt. Photo: DPA


Frankfurt- The Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, said Wednesday it had returned to German soil all of its gold kept in Paris and some reserves from the US, three years ahead of schedule.

Some 374 tonnes of the metal, 11 percent of the German stock, left the vaults at the Bank of France, while 300 tonnes have been removed from the Federal Reserve in New York to the Bundesbank vaults in Frankfurt, board member Carl-Ludwig Thiele told journalists.

An official said returning the reserves ahead of time is considered a success.

The shipments were finished in secret far ahead of the 2020 deadline at a cost of some €7.7 million.

Some 1,710 tonnes are now kept in Frankfurt, with 1,236 remaining in New York and 432 in London.

According to Germany’s central bank data the share of German gold stored at home is 50 percent, rising from 31 percent back in 2013.

Germany now has no gold reserves left in France after getting back its 91 metric tons (100.3 tons) from there.

Germany began securing its reserves abroad during the Cold War, when the Bundesbank preferred to keep most of its gold safe from the prospect of a sudden Soviet invasion.

Germany holds the world’s second-largest gold reserves after the United States, for a market value of around 120 billion euros.