The draining of London’s vaults

We’ve reported previously of the trail of gold from London’s vaults to Switzerland’s refineries to China, largely assumed to be the 2013 outflows from ETF paper holdings (typically stored in London).  But official data out of the UK shows that 2013 exports of physical gold (an amazing 10 times that of 2012 at 1,739 tonne) was nearly double that of ETF liquidations.  That leaves Comex liquidations and gold bullion held by funds and high net worth individuals also exiting London.  300 tonne stayed in the ‘safe haven’ of Switzerland and records show the majority of the rest went to China and India.