The timing and size of the IMF sale seem quite strange. The IMF has been threatening to sell for almost ten years, it just did, in one big move.

Why just now? Why so much? Why to India, and not China or others?

I wonder whether this is a way for the LBMA, which supposedly has had trouble honoring physical deliveries, to get a hold of new gold. Presumably, London and India, a former colony, might have a secret understanding that these 200T would be leased to the LBMA until this crisis is over, or so the LBMA would hope.

There was a precedent for this, when earlier this year the ECB sold about 1M oz to Deutsche Bank, as noted by Rob Kirby.