Qatar central bank sells dollars, buys gold

According to this report, the Qatar Central Bank quadrupled their gold holdings in the first quarter of 2007. They didn't have much to begin with but now they have more - but not nearly as much as they had back in the 1980s according to World Gold Council statistics.

Qatar is in the process of diversifying its foreign exchange reserves away from the dollar and adding both gold and euros - sounds like a wise move, but they've got a long way to go to correct for their late-1990s blunder of selling about 17 tonnes in the high $300 range and six of their last eight tonnes in 1997 at Gordon Brown firesale prices.

Interestingly, also appearing in the World Gold Council statistics, these central banks sold the following amount of gold bullion in the first quarter:

• Spain - 40 tonnes
• France - 31 tonnes
• Indonesia - 23 tonnes
• BIS - 7 tonnes
• Sweden - 2 tonnes

And still the price of the metal refuses to go down.