Korea, Thailand and Russia bullish for AuUPDATE 2-Emerging world buys $10 bln in gold as West wobbles
* Thailand adds nearly 19 T to reserves in June -IMF* Russia buys, Kazakhstan makes third buy of 2011By Amanda CooperLONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Central banks of emerging marketcountries such as Korea and Thailand have added more than $10billion of gold to their reserves this year in a sign of waningfaith in the West's benchmark bonds and currencies like thedollar and the euro.International Monetary Fund data for June on Wednesdayshowed Thailand bought gold for the second time this year,raising its reserves by nearly 19 tonnes to over 127 tonnes,while Russia bought another 5.85 tonnes, bringing its reservesto 836.7 tonnes, the world's eighth largest official stash ofthe metal.So far in 2011, emerging market central banks have boughtnearly 180 tonnes of gold, more than double the roughly 73tonnes purchased by central banks globally in the whole of 2010.The spot price of gold has risen by more than 17percent this year to a record $1,672.65 an ounce, driven chieflyby investor concerns over the impact on the developed world'seconomy of its debt burdens and sluggish growth.Mexico has been the largest buyer of gold in the year todate, with $5.3 billion worth of purchases, or 98 tonnes ofgold, followed by Russia, which has bought 48 tonnes, worth $2.6billion at current prices.Earlier this week, Korea confirmed it had bought 25 tonnesof gold in June and July."Central banks evidently do not regard the price level astoo high and are diversifying their currency reserves. This wasthe first purchase of gold for the Korean central bank in overten years," said Commerzbank metals analyst Daniel Briesemann."Gold's high-altitude flight still appears to be supportedby many factors and an end to the boom soon is not in sight."