By John Revill
ZURICH (Reuters) -The Swiss National Bank reported on Friday a third-quarter profit of 27.93 billion Swiss francs ($35 billion), helped by the booming value of its gold reserves.
The central bank posted a valuation gain of 14.33 billion francs on its gold holdings between June and September, up from the 4.41 billion franc gain on the precious metal last year.
It is a record gold profit since the SNB started using the market value of the metal in its profit calculations in 2000.
It was also significantly more than the average quarterly profit the central bank has made from its gold holdings over the last 10 years, which was less than 2 billion francs, according to UBS calculations.
GOLD GAINS FROM SAFE-HAVEN DEMAND
The SNB, with unchanged gold holdings of 1,040 metric tons, has benefited from gold prices, which have risen by 53% this year as investors hedged against increased political and geopolitical uncertainties.
The weakening U.S. dollar has also made gold cheaper for holders of other currencies, boosting demand, while rate cuts by the Federal Reserve have reduced the yield from other less risky assets like U.S. Treasuries, making gold more attractive.
“It’s very unusual for the SNB to make so much profit from gold, but the gains reflect the big price gains gold has had this year,” said UBS economist Florian Germanier.
“The profit is purely a nice side effect of having an asset which is considered the ultimate safe haven and which the SNB is required to hold to diversify its holdings and to carry out monetary policy,” he added.
During the third quarter, the SNB also reported a gain of 13.63 billion francs from its foreign currency positions, the bonds and stocks it has bought with foreign currencies it has purchased.
As a result, the central bank improved its third-quarter profit to 27.93 billion francs, up from a 5.67 million franc profit a year earlier.
($1 = 0.7931 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Ludwig Burger, Mark Potter and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
