Last updated on December 19th, 2023 at 12:44 pm
The United States Federal Reserve maintains its lead as the highest gold reserves with 8,133.47 metric tons in the comity of North and South American countries.
The U.S. isn’t just the largest economy on paper, but it has proven its economic power backed by gold reserves on the two continents combined as its reserves remained unchanged in the first quarter of 2022, the same reserves it maintained in the fourth quarter of 2021, World Gold Council says.
USA’s gold holding is also the highest in the world, this is apart from gold deposits in California, minerals resources in Texas and other gemstones spread across the country.
Gold holdings of the North American country are 13 times higher than the gold reserves of other countries combined on the two continents, according to trading economics data. The reserves of the 18 countries according to data available to Infomedia Blog is 600.98 tonnes
The second gold reserve is held by the Central Bank of Venezuela with 161 metric tons in the first quarter of 2022.
Apart from Venezuela’s holding in the precious metal, the South American country has gold deposits which are unfortunately smuggled out of the country to other countries where they find international buyers, according to HRW.
That said, Brazil’s 130 tonnes make the country the third highest gold reserves in America. There is no difference in its gold holdings in between 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.
Mexico and Argentina are No. 4 and No. 5 with 120 and 61.74 metric tons respectively.
Below is the table of ranking of countries with the largest gold reserves in America (North and South):
| Rank | Countries | Reserves by tonnes |
| 1 | USA | 8,133 |
| 2 | Venezuela | 161 |
| 3 | Brazil | 130 |
| 4 | Mexico | 120 |
| 5 | Argentina | 61.74 |
| 6 | Bolivia | 42.51 |
| 7 | Peru | 34.68 |
| 8 | Ecuador | 21.93 |
| 9 | Paraguay | 8.19 |
| 10 | Guatemala | 6.89 |
Note: Argentina was the only country that increased its gold reserves in the year under review: from 54.77 tonnes to 61.74 tonnes between fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022.
Sources:
- Gold reserves data by: World Gold Council and Trading Economics
- Tamara Broner and Martina (April 29, 2022). “Venezuelan Tainted Gold”. hrw.org
