In the past several years, many countries from all over the world have repatriated their gold reserves held offshore. Even European countries have started following the trend off late. This gives a clear indication about the future economic trends that are likely to happen. Central European countries such as Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria combined have nearly 4,000 tons of reserves held and are the second largest reserve holders in the world. Their significant gold holdings form the support of their currency and hence, they have a high credit rating consistently. This also gives them the upper edge in taking several decisions and they have a strong hold over the entire Europe and its functioning. Although they might seem to be politically and financially strong nations, their relations with other weaker economies go for a toss in the long run. Due to the Greek crisis and other economically challenging conditions in countries like Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal, all these countries are slowly marching towards a test of faith that might eventually happen considering the prevailing scenario.
Most of the central banks do understand the risks they are running into, and do anticipate a breakdown in the economical scenario, as gold will be that critical asset to make sure that there will not be any emerging crisis in the Eurozone in the long run. Although it is not seen as the ultimate indicator when it comes to the economical health of a country, the central banks do realize that it is the best form of currency available and they are taking all steps to ensure that they repatriate gold and hold all reserves within their country’s borders to avoid any risks. They believe in holding physical gold within their country rather than having it on paper and having their reserves in other nations.