HALF THE WORLD’S GOLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21537, 8 January 1932, Page 11

HALF THE WORLD’S GOLD

There is more gold in the United Slates now than at any time in its history. The amount, 4,685,000,000 dollars, revealed in the weekly Federal Reserve statement for March 18, was 42.5 per cent, of all the monetary gold in the world, and is 1.000. dollars greater than the previous high mark of 4,684,000,000 dollars established on May 14, 1927. The figure is more than twice that of France, which has maintained an astonishing rate of gold imports for more than a year, and is seven times that of England, the weekly statements of the Bank of France'and the Bank of England reveal (says the San Francisco Chronicle). The total is the greatest over achieved by any country in financial history, and is about two and a-half times the amount in the United States at the outbreak of the World War. It is considerably more than dollar for dollar backing for all currency in circulation. About 280,000,000 dollars was added to (he United States of America’s monetary gold during the last year in imports from European and South American countries, and 8,000,000 dollars was imported in one week alone, principally from South America and Central America and Mexico. Concentration of gold in the United States and France, which together hold 7.000. dollars of the world’s total of 11,000.000,000 dollars, has been given considerable attention in banking circles, and there are indications of tendencies which will bring a more equitable distribution of the metal. Britain particularly has depleted its resources.