Venezuela’s Gold Holdings: 13% Drop in 2024
Venezuela’s gold reserves closed the second half of 2024 with a total of 52.9 tons, according to calculations based on data from the notes to the financial statements published by the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV). This figure decreased by 13% compared to 2023, reflecting the outflow of 8 tons of monetary gold.
The BCV reported that its monetary gold holdings are valued at $4,243.9 million, based on an average price of $2,492.58 per troy ounce. This amount is 10% lower than the previous year, despite the increase in the value of gold in the international market.
The Maduro government has been intensively using this reserve asset since 2014, to the point that since the beginning of his administration, it has accumulated a decrease of 328.2 tons, meaning that it has liquidated 86% of what was available when he assumed office in 2013. However, this trend stopped in the second half of 2023, but resumed a year later.
The BCV details that the monetary gold reserve is constituted “by the existence of coined gold and bars deposited in its vaults and in first-class qualified foreign financial institutions, according to internationally recognized risk criteria.”
In 2011, then-President Hugo Chávez repatriated part of the gold that Venezuela had deposited abroad, which has allowed his successor to freely trade with this asset, using it as a means of payment, for example, in transactions with Iran, as reported in 2020 by an official from that country.
Another part is, for example, in the Bank of England. There is a legal dispute over the use of that part of the assets. The English authorities have stated that they do not recognize the Maduro government, but it remains to be defined whether its management can be placed in the hands of the National Assembly elected in 2015.
With the decrease during 2024, the amount of monetary gold in Venezuelan reserves is at its minimum in the last 70 years, according to historical figures that can be traced at the International Monetary Fund.
The BCV does not detail the reasons for the decrease in monetary gold holdings, but in the past, the Maduro government has used this reserve asset to make swaps (a financial movement that cannot be carried out since 2019 due to sanctions) and also as a means of payment to allies such as Iran.
