The island runs a large trade surplus, and its foreign reserves are the world's fourth largest, behind China, Japan, and Russia.
The U.S. is by far No. 1 with over 8, 000 tons of gold in storage, accounting for 76.6% of its foreign reserves, according to the World Gold Council.
Further, this only adds to expectations that China will keep adding gold to its massive foreign reserves, he said.
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That would be a good reason to diversify its foreign exchange reserves.
It also holds billions of greenbacks in its foreign cash reserves.
Currently, China has less than 2% of its foreign currency reserves in gold bullion, compared with more than 70% for the U.S. and Germany, according to the World Gold Council, a trade group.
The SNB has stopped having to buy up foreign currencies with new swiss franc, which it did in earnest to prove its commitment in 2011, increasing its foreign exchange reserves by 177 billion from July to September.
One of the only reasons why the euro is trading so strongly against the dollar, despite ever worsening debt problems in Greece, Italy and Portugal is because China is diversifying its foreign cash reserves away from the dollar and buying euros.
Its foreign-exchange reserves are now four times as large as its short-term foreign debt, and it has a current-account surplus.
Instead its foreign-exchange reserves are building up because of strong capital inflows, driven by speculation that it will have to revalue its currency.
The government is also due to send a delegation to Moscow this week to negotiate the terms of a loan that it hopes with bolster its depleted foreign exchange reserves.
As the world's fastest-growing big economy, with the biggest current-account surplus and foreign reserves, its currency ought by rights to be rising.
It notes that the country's burgeoning reserves now almost equal its entire foreign debt.
Though India's banks face bad debts, its cloistered financial system, high foreign-exchange reserves and capable central bank mean it is not about to keel over.
Its point was to pool members' foreign-exchange reserves to help crisis-hit countries suffering liquidity crunches.
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To prop up its currency, a government can sell foreign-exchange reserves to buy that currency.
The stated debt is deceiving because in real terms Japan only owes the equivalent of 100% of GDP--Japan has Y1, 000, 000 billion in foreign exchange reserves and owns part of its debt, it doesn't offset debt for reporting purposes.
And its prudent habits resulted in perennial budget surpluses and huge foreign reserves.
But ultimately the costs, in terms of increasing foreign exchange reserves and rising inflation, may force its hand.
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Amid its revolutionary turmoil, Egypt has suffered a precipitous fall in foreign reserves and has trouble paying for fuel.
In addition to helping establish Greece as an energy producer for the rest of Europe, tapping into those reserves could help the country ease its heavy dependence on foreign resources, estimated to cost about five percent of GDP a year.
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In a little-noticed comment during the weekend's meetings, Yi Gang, a deputy governor of China's central bank and head of the country's foreign-exchange reserves, said that China aimed to bring its current-account surplus below 4% of GDP within 3-5 years.
That suggests that one of its main interests in foreign investors may be their contribution to China's foreign-currency reserves.
Further confirmation that the U.S. dollar is gradually losing its reserve status came today from an International Monetary Fund report on global holdings of foreign exchange reserves by central banks.
FORBES: Dollar's Share Of Global Reserves Continues To Slide, Reserve Status Questioned
Adviser Carlton Delfeld of Chartwell Global ETF Report likes Switzerland for its strong currency backed by ample gold reserves, fiscal discipline, trade surplus and very little foreign debt.
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