Germany to Withdraw 300 Tons of Gold From US

Country's reserves stored mostly abroad
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 17, 2013 4:03 AM CST
Updated Jan 17, 2013 7:25 AM CST
Germany to Retrieve 300 Tons of Gold From US
Gold ingots are stored at their headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.   (AP Photo/hopd/Deutsche Bundesbank)

Germany boasts gold reserves worth $183 billion—but two-thirds of the stuff is kept outside the country. Now, the country's central bank is set to make a heck of a withdrawal, including some 300 tons currently in a vault under Manhattan, stored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Germany is aiming to have more than half its gold in Frankfurt by 2020, the New York Times reports.

Cold War-era West Germany, fearful of a Soviet invasion, moved its gold to the West; along with the US, France and Britain both house its gold. Now Germany is also withdrawing 374 tons from the Banque de France. The move prompted some financial experts to wonder whether "central banks don’t trust each other," but German officials say that's not the case; they figure it's pointless to keep gold reserves as currency protection in France now that both countries use the euro. New York and London will continue to hold about half of Germany's stores. (More Germany stories.)

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