Prevent financial crisis, inflation and other emergency economic situations. With more money at home, people are stiff when they talk. The state prints money and is not short of money. Gold is the last word. What is the specific function of gold reserve?

Gold reserve refers to the gold held by a country's monetary authorities to balance the balance of payments and maintain or influence the exchange rate level. As a financial asset, it plays a special role in stabilizing the national economy, curbing inflation and improving international credit. The management significance of gold reserves lies in realizing the maximum possible liquidity and profitability of gold reserves. As one of the main forms of international reserves, gold reserves have their own limitations in liquidity, so it is necessary to consider its moderate scale.

The significance of correctly understanding the concept of gold reserve lies in: first, it helps to determine the reasonable scale of gold reserve; Second, it can avoid confusion with the daily gold assets of commercial banks, which is conducive to the normal operation of banking business; Third, it is helpful for the central banks of gold control countries to correctly formulate gold management policies and promote the healthy development of their own gold industry and related industries.

As a part of international reserves, gold reserves are only one aspect of measuring a country's wealth. High gold reserves will enhance its ability to resist the impact of international investment funds, help make up the balance of payments deficit and help maintain a country's economic stability. However, excessive gold reserves will increase the holding cost of the central bank, because the yield of gold reserves is basically zero in the long run, and the importance of gold reserves has been greatly reduced after the disintegration of the gold standard. At present, China's gold reserves are about 600 tons, or 600 million grams.

The function is to regulate the total money supply in the market from the perspective of money banks.

Reference factors for determining the scale of gold reserves;

1. Balance of payments situation

2. External debt level

3. Level of foreign exchange reserves

The application forms of gold reserves are mainly divided into direct operation, indirect turnover and asset combination.

1. Direct operation-A country's monetary authorities take advantage of various opportunities in the international financial market and adopt various operational means to directly participate in trading activities in the gold market.

2. Indirect turnover-a country's monetary authorities indirectly realize the purpose of maintaining and increasing the value of gold reserves by manufacturing and selling gold coins, carrying out gold leasing and handling gold lending.

3. Portfolio-according to the principles of liquidity and profitability, a certain amount of gold reserves will be converted into foreign exchange reserves with high profitability and strong liquidity in time, and appropriate adjustments will be made according to changes in market exchange rates.

There are two main forms of using gold reserves in China:

(1) Through the international gold market, cash, futures, options and other trading methods are adopted to improve the operating rate of gold reserves.

(2) By issuing and distributing various kinds of gold coins, the appreciation of gold in stock can be realized.

The purpose of storing gold

Why should countries reserve gold?

The gold reserves of countries are determined by their commodity attributes. Because of its excellent characteristics, gold has played the role of currency in history, such as value scale, circulation means, storage means, payment means and historical currency. With the development of social economy, gold has withdrawn from the circulation field. In the 1970s, gold was decoupled from the dollar. The golden functions of money has also weakened, but it still maintains a certain functions of money. Now many countries, including major western countries, have international reserves.

Gold is the most reliable means of maintaining value. It has its own value, so its purchasing power is relatively stable. In the environment of inflation, the price of gold rises simultaneously. On the other hand, it will not fall during the period of deflation, because there is a wave of buying gold every time the political and financial situation is turbulent in history.

Gold reserves are completely within the independent power of the state. A country can control its own gold without foreign interference.

Compared with paper money, gold has relative internal stability, while paper money is influenced by the credit and solvency of the issuing country or financial institution. Creditor's rights are in a passive position and are not as reliable as gold.

As a national reserve, the role of gold cannot be ignored. At present, the total foreign exchange reserves of gold in various countries are about 32,000 tons.

The actual function of gold reserve

Why do countries make gold reserves so large?

1. Diversification of reserves.

In any portfolio, it is not wise to put eggs in one basket. The price of gold will fluctuate, but the currency exchange rate in the reserve will fluctuate like the interest rate. Diversification of reserves usually has a more stable return on investment than a single reserve. Therefore, personal investment should not put eggs in one basket.

2. As a country's economic security, gold reserve plays an extremely important role in a country's economy, and has an important positive role in stabilizing the state-owned economy and maintaining the stability of the currency. Moreover, gold is a unique asset that is not directly affected by any country's monetary policy and finance. Therefore, when there is domestic inflation, gold will not depreciate, so there will be no risk. So saving some gold at home is not afraid of inflation.

3. Material security.

In the past, many countries implemented foreign exchange control. What's more, they have frozen all foreign exchange assets. These measures often have a great impact on the reserves composed of foreign securities. When gold is reasonably held in the reserve, this influence will be weakened. The role of reserves is to prepare for emergencies, so complete liquidity is essential. There is no doubt about it. Gold has this characteristic.

Gold plays the role of "war fund".

In an emergency, all countries may need mobile resources. Gold is liquid and is generally accepted by all countries. Besides, gold can be mortgaged.

The development of gold reserves can be used as a sign of the strength of each country.

At present, the world's total gold reserves are 37.650 tons, which is about 13 times of the world's annual gold production. Among them, countries and organizations with 1 000 tons are: the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and the International Monetary Fund. Among the above countries, there are 32 countries and regions with the largest reserves, which are 8 136.9 tons, less than 6540 tons. 600 tons. Judging from the above figures, powerful countries have more gold reserves, which shows that gold is still a symbol of the comprehensive strength of all countries. Therefore, gold reserves are still valued by all countries in the world, especially developed countries. Therefore, as an individual, a country wants to reserve more gold. Why don't we keep it? If you don't save some money, you can't save the emergency.

6. National deposits are for strategic reserves.

Gold is the main body of the national strategic reserve, which can not be ignored. For example, the US combat reserve accounts for 65.5%, the Netherlands 45.5%, France 4 1.9%, Italy 45.9%, Switzerland 39.9%, Pakistan 32.6%, Kazakhstan 22.2% and Zimbabwe 39.9%. So there is a saying in China [when the cannon rings. Gold.

7. Because gold is not easy to be damaged, it is not as easy to depreciate as paper money.

Therefore, the government holding gold will increase public confidence. Some countries clearly realize that gold has a strong supporting effect on their currencies. In addition, gold reserves are conducive to improving its solvency. The official gold reserves of various countries are mainly used as reserves for international payment. The amount of a country's gold reserves is closely related to its foreign debt repayment ability. If a country has gold in its reserves, rating agencies will also give it a green light. Therefore, gold reserves are conducive to improving a country's credit reliability. A country is like this, and so is a company. As we all know, there is always 100 gold in [Tongrentang] store to enhance credit. If you have 100 gold at home, then your credit must be very high.

Holding gold can be regarded as insurance premium.

In case of some unexpected events, the liability for compensation is always guaranteed. In a word, there are many advantages for the state to hold gold. Then every family should be like a country. If you want to maintain stability, you should also save some gold.

3. Is the proportion of gold reserves in China too small?

Tamia Liu, an expert on gold issues and chief strategic analyst of Shanghai Fu Yuan Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., said in an interview with this reporter that it is very necessary to increase China's gold reserves. At present, after the recent exchange rate reform of RMB, whether there is gold in this basket of currencies is worthy of attention. At present, the international political and economic situation is turbulent, terrorist attacks continue to occur, the situation in the Middle East is unstable from time to time, and the US dollar fluctuates violently against major currencies. No matter how the exchange rate mechanism is reformed, it is necessary to increase foreign exchange reserves accordingly.

Tamia Liu further analyzed that major currencies, such as the US dollar, the euro and the Japanese yen, are just credit currencies, no matter how strong they are. Its issuance is embodied in the form that the holder has creditor's rights to the issuing country. As a real currency, gold is completely risk-free. Of the foreign exchange reserves of 710.973 billion US dollars, only 600 tons of gold reserves are available, which is not enough for developing countries like us. 49667.88668688666

When asked about the reasons for such a low level of gold reserves, Tamia Liu said: First, lack of understanding; Second, excessive pursuit of short-term gains from US dollar reserves. Because the yield of gold is relatively low, gold is more used as a last resort. Therefore, while foreign exchange reserves are rising in recent years, gold reserves have not changed much. Tamia Liu suggested that China should link increasing its gold reserves with opening the private gold market and increasing its private gold holdings. It's better this way. In 2002, China's gold reserves increased from 395 tons in the past to 500 tons now, an increase of nearly 27%. At the price of gold at that time, 500 tons of gold was equivalent to US$ 4 billion, accounting for about 2% of China's foreign exchange reserves, which was at a low level internationally, compared with the average level of European Central Bank 15% and the average level of 70% in the United States. According to China's economic development, foreign exchange and international credit reliability, we think that China's gold reserves should be increased in recent years, accounting for 4% to 5% of the total reserves.

China Sustainable Development Strategy Report in 2003 scored the comprehensive national strength of sustainable development of three major countries in the world, and the result was that China ranked seventh in the comprehensive national strength of sustainable development. Among the economic strength indicators composed of economic aggregate, economic structure, economic speed, trade composition and finance, China scored 869.45, ranking third. It can be predicted that with the further optimization of China's economic structure, China's national economy will maintain a relatively fast development speed for a long time to come. Therefore, China's total gold reserves should also reach a corresponding level, which can reflect China's comprehensive national strength.

After China's entry into WTO, imports have increased substantially, but it still takes time to adjust the structure of export commodities and diversify export transformation. Therefore, maintaining sufficient foreign exchange reserves and gold reserves is a powerful guarantee for balancing China's import and export trade deficit or capital shortage, regulating international payments and preventing the risk of currency redemption, and can avoid the negative impact on economic development caused by being forced to implement economic austerity policies.

Holding sufficient gold reserves is the need to maintain the stability of China's financial system. The proportion of non-performing assets in China's financial system is too high, which hides huge financial risks. In order to maintain the stability of the financial system, improve the credibility of the financial system and reduce the possibility of triggering a large-scale financial crisis, sufficient gold reserves are needed.