If any commodity can be said to be larger than life, it is surely gold. The yellow metal’s magical and mythical qualities were on full display this week. Central banks’ rising appetite for bullion encouraged gold standard nostalgia as well as advocates of a post-dollar era in the global monetary system. In truth, however, it testifies to economic policymakers’ timidity.

For the gold market, the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to snap up 200 tonnes of bullion from the International Monetary Fund amounts to an earthquake. The bilateral deal may cut in half the amount the IMF had originally planned to offload on the open market – 400 tonnes or 11 per cent of annual global supply.