Europe's central banks ditch 20-year-old gold sales agreement

European central banks have ditched a 20-year-old agreement to coordinate their gold sales, saying they have no plan to sell large amounts of the metal, the European Central Bank said on Friday.

The Central Bank Gold Agreement was originally signed in 1999 to coordinate gold sales by the various central banks and help stabilize the market for the precious metal.

"The signatories confirm that gold remains an important element of global monetary reserves, as it continues to provide asset diversification benefits and none of them currently has plans to sell significant amounts of gold," the ECB said in a statement.