BEIRUT: Recent figures released by the World Gold Council indicated that Lebanon’s official gold holdings stood at 286.8 tons at end-2010, the 18th highest worldwide and the second highest among the13 surveyed MENA nations, as reported by Bank Audi’s Lebanon Weekly Monitor. Globally. Lebanon ranked ahead of Spain, which had gold holdings of 281.6 tons as at end-December 2010, Austria (280 tons), Belgium (227.5 tons), Philippines (175.9 tons) and Algeria (173.6 tons). Lebanon came after the U.K. (310.3 tons), Saudi Arabia (322.9 tons), Venezuela (363.9 tons) and Portugal (382.5 tons). Regionally, Lebanon came second to Saudi Arabia. Libya held (143.8 tons), Kuwait (79.0 tons), Egypt (75.6 tons) and Syria (25.8 tons). Lebanon’s gold holdings accounted for some 25 percent of total gold holdings of the 13 surveyed MENA nations.