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You cant eat gold, either.

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/cia-factbook/2004/fields/2188.html

Field Listing - Reserves of foreign exchange & gold

Home Reference Maps Appendixes Rank Order List

Country	Reserves of foreign exchange & gold
Albania	$1.038 billion (2003)
Algeria	$33.42 billion (2003)
Angola	$638.4 million (2003)
Argentina	$14.16 billion (2003)
Armenia	$509.4 million (2003)
Australia	$33.26 billion (2003)
Austria	$12.73 billion (2003)
Azerbaijan	$820.9 million (2003)
Bahrain	$1.785 billion (2003)
Bangladesh	$2.624 billion (2003)
Belarus	$637 million (2003)
Belgium	$14.45 billion (2003)
Belize	$84.7 million (2003)
Benin	$636 million (2003)
Bolivia	$1.096 billion (2003)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	$1.796 billion (2003)
Botswana	$5.25 billion (2003)
Brazil	$49.3 billion (2003)
Bulgaria	$6.705 billion (2003)
Burkina Faso	$379 million (2003)
Burma	$562 million (2003)
Burundi	$67.4 million (2003)
Cambodia	$861.4 million (2003)
Cameroon	$634 million (2003)
Canada	$36.27 billion (2003)
Cape Verde	$88.02 million (2003)
Chad	$191.8 million (2003)
Chile	$15.84 billion (2003)
China	$412.7 billion (2003)
Colombia	$10.92 billion (2003)
Congo, Republic of the	$44.53 million (2003)
Costa Rica	$1.836 billion (2003)
Cote d'Ivoire	$2.005 billion (2003)
Croatia	$8.191 billion (2003)
Cuba	$582 million (2003)
Cyprus	$3.453 billion (2003)
Czech Republic	$26.8 billion (2003)
Denmark	$37.98 billion (2003)
Dominican Republic	$261 million (2003)
Ecuador	$1.161 billion (2003)
Egypt	$14.22 billion (2003)
El Salvador	$2.061 billion (2003)
Equatorial Guinea	$206 million (2003)
Eritrea	$28 million (2003)
Estonia	$1.377 billion (2003)
Ethiopia	$956 million (2003)
European Union	$NA
Finland	$11.17 billion (2003)
France	$70.76 billion (2003)
Gabon	$201.9 million (2003)
Gambia, The	$118 million (2003)
Georgia	$190.7 million (2003)
Germany	$96.84 billion (2003)
Ghana	$1.469 billion (2003)
Greece	$5.802 billion (2003)
Guatemala	$2.843 billion (2003)
Guinea	$191 million (2003)
Guyana	$257 million (2003)
Haiti	$73 million (2003)
Honduras	$1.439 billion (2003)
Hong Kong	$118.4 billion (2003)
Hungary	$12.78 billion (2003)
Iceland	$818.7 million (2003)
India	$102.3 billion (2003)
Indonesia	$36.25 billion (2003)
Iran	$25.13 billion (2003)
Ireland	$4.152 billion (2003)
Israel	$26.32 billion (2003)
Italy	$63.26 billion (2003)
Jamaica	$1.195 billion (2003)
Japan	$664.6 billion (2003)
Jordan	$5.364 billion (2003)
Kazakhstan	$4.962 billion (2003)
Kenya	$1.455 billion (2003)
Korea, South	$155.4 billion (2003)
Kuwait	$7.685 billion (2003)
Kyrgyzstan	$399.3 million (2003)
Laos	$201 million (2003)
Latvia	$1.535 billion (2003)
Lebanon	$16.35 billion (2003)
Lesotho	$460 million (2003)
Libya	$19.78 billion (2003)
Lithuania	$3.45 billion (2003)
Macedonia	$935.1 million (2003)
Madagascar	$423 million (2003)
Malawi	$132 million (2003)
Malaysia	$44.58 billion (2003)
Malta	$2.429 billion (2003)
Mauritius	$1.598 billion (2003)
Mexico	$59.02 billion (2003)
Moldova	$302.3 million (2003)
Morocco	$14.08 billion (2003)
Mozambique	$990 million (2003)
Namibia	$325.2 million (2003)
Netherlands	$21.44 billion (2003)
New Zealand	$5.083 billion (2003)
Nicaragua	$502 million (2003)
Nigeria	$7.128 billion (2003)
Oman	$3.594 billion (2003)
Pakistan	$11.67 billion (2003)
Panama	$1.011 billion (2003)
Papua New Guinea	$510.5 million (2003)
Paraguay	$982 million (2003)
Peru	$10.24 billion (2003)
Philippines	$16.87 billion (2003)
Poland	$33.96 billion (2003)
Portugal	$12.81 billion (2003)
Qatar	$2.952 billion (2003)
Romania	$10.37 billion (2003)
Russia	$76.94 billion (2003)
Rwanda	$215 million (2003)
Sao Tome and Principe	$18 million (2003)
Saudi Arabia	$22.86 billion (2003)
Senegal	$780 million (2003)
Serbia and Montenegro	$3.7 billion (2003)
Seychelles	$66 million (2003)
Singapore	$95.75 billion (2003)
Slovakia	$11.74 billion (2003)
Slovenia	$8.598 billion (2003)
South Africa	$7.972 billion (2003)
Spain	$26.81 billion (2003)
Sri Lanka	$2.273 billion (2003)
Sudan	$847.2 million (2003)
Swaziland	$277.5 million (2003)
Sweden	$19.99 billion (2003)
Switzerland	$69.58 billion (2003)
Syria	$3.329 billion (2003)
Taiwan	$207.1 billion (2003)
Tajikistan	$117.6 million (2003)
Tanzania	$2.064 billion (2003)
Thailand	$42.15 billion (2003)
Togo	$257 million (2003)
Trinidad and Tobago	$2.477 billion (2003)
Tunisia	$2.949 billion (2003)
Turkey	$35.55 billion (2003)
Turkmenistan	$2.696 billion (2003)
Uganda	$1.08 billion (2003)
Ukraine	$6.937 billion (2003)
United Arab Emirates	$15.79 billion (2003)
United Kingdom	$46.05 billion (2003)
United States	$85.94 billion (2003)
Uruguay	$2.087 billion (2003)
Uzbekistan	$1.286 billion (2003)
Venezuela	$20.67 billion (2003)
Vietnam	$6.357 billion (2003)
Yemen	$5.009 billion (2003)
Zambia	$247.7 million (2003)
Zimbabwe	$78 million (2003)

This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005

What makes your chart less-than meaningful is that the IMF which sets the rules for reserve accounting allows central banks to count gold "on loan" as the same as gold. The central banks took to loaning gold to make money on the "barbarous relic" in the 90s, usually at 2%. They did this lending to help them earn money on an otherwise useless assett (they claim, though why the Fed would NEED to make money is an interesting question given it's mission and the fact that it returns excess profit to the treasury).

So the gold is leant to gold brokers (Chase, for instance) who then pay 2% for it. What they did was sell it and use the money to buy things that earn money. Like T-Bills at 5%. (See how rich you can get with big money and insider friends!) Figuring, if we ever need to return the gold we'll buy more.

Supposedly one of the reason's Greenspan stepped in to bail out LTCM in the late 90s was they were major gold shorters and it threated to crack the system.

The truth is becuase of the bogus accounting we just don't know what's out there.