paper gold
- noun
- Specialized
:
oro papel
- But for the meantime, central banks use bullion banks to sell what's called paper gold, imaginary gold, on the futures markets to control the price.
Examples
-
During times of economic uncertainty, some investors turn to paper gold as a hedge against inflation.
-
Many investors prefer paper gold for its liquidity and ease of trading compared to physical gold.
-
The rise in demand for paper gold has led to increased interest in investment products such as gold-backed ETFs.
Synonyms
1
9.0
Extra international money from the IMF to help countries build foreign currency reserves and keep their exchange rates stable
How Physical
- Specialized
22
8.0
- Specialized
2
6.1
- Specialized
- Specialized
8
6.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
paper + gold
The phrase pairs 'paper' (material/representation) with 'gold', so a B1 learner who knows both words can plausibly infer it denotes gold in a non-physical, paper/electronic form rather than physical bullion. However, identifying it specifically as tradable financial instruments (ETFs, certificates, futures) requires domain knowledge beyond the literal constituents, so the meaning is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Paper gold comes from the simple image of paper that says you own gold instead of holding the metal. One popular use was at the IMF, which used such paper records to help countries' reserves, so the term means 'reserve assets' that are not physical gold but records used like gold.