‘The gold reserves managed and held by the Bank of Italy belong to the State, in the name of the Italian people’. The amendment is signed by the Fdi group leader in the Senate, Lucio Malan, and the Melonian rapporteur of the manoeuvre, Guido Liris, had bet on it: it will be ‘presumably signalled’ by Fratelli d’Italia. And in fact it is among the approximately 400 amendments that are candidates to actually enter the text of the budget law.
The 2014 agenda
It is a proposal that certainly pleases Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In January 2014, the former opposition figure asked the Letta government to vote on an agenda precisely on Italy’s reserves in which it was asked to clarify that these reserves ‘remain the property of the Italian people’.
How much is Bankitalia’s gold worth
But how much is gold worth under the control of Via Nazionale? The updated value of gold reserves is published annually in the Institute’s balance sheet. “At the end of 2024,” reads the latest balance sheet of Palazzo Koch, “the value of gold was 197,945 million euro. The increase of 50,706 million over the previous year was due to the higher price of the metal, which increased by 34.4 per cent compared to the end of 2023. The stock remained unchanged at 79 million ounces, corresponding to 2,452 tonnes.
The competence of the ECB
But gold reserves, although managed by the Bank of Italy, are a matter for the ECB. Frankfurt’s prerogative derives from the EU Treaty. For the ECB, the Italian government cannot intervene in wealth that belongs to the national central banks as a whole.