KUWAIT CITY, Sept 13: Kuwait ranked seventh in the Arab world and second among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries in terms of central bank’s reserves of gold, which amounted to about 79 tons at the end of last July, representing 8.7 percent of the total reserves, reports Al-Rai daily. Statistics issued by the World Gold Council showed Saudi Arabia topped the countries in the Arab world in terms of the volume of gold reserves (323.1 tons) which constitutes only 3.8 percent of its total reserves of foreign assets, which places the country in the 18th rank globally, followed by Lebanon in second place in the Arab world and 20th globally with reserves 286.8 tons of gold at the end of July, equivalent to 50.3 percent of Lebanon’s reserves of foreign assets.

Algeria ranked third in the Arab world with 173.6 tons of gold, representing 16 percent of reserves, ranking 26th globally, followed by Iraq in fourth place, possessing 130.4 tons, representing 9.5 percent of total reserves, ranking 30th globally.

Reserves
The data indicated that the reserves of the world’s central banks of the yellow metal amounted to 35,393 tons at the end of last July, and the United States of America topped the list with 8,133.5 tons, representing 66.9 percent of the reserves of the American Central Bank, followed by Germany with 3,355.1 tons of gold, representing 66.1% of the total reserves of the Bundesbank. Gold is considered a safe haven, especially in times of crisis, as many tend to buy it to hedge against inflation risks.