Almost every serious estimate of official-sector demand rests on disclosures that arrive well after the transaction. Some buyers report monthly, some quarterly, some in an annual line item, and a meaningful share of purchases are only inferred from residuals in trade and custody data.
Why the delay matters more than it used to
When sovereign buying was a rounding error, the lag was an academic irritation. Now that it is one of the largest single sources of net demand, an entire quarter can be mispriced on stale information, and revisions land as if they were news.
What would fix it
Nothing that requires a treaty. A voluntary commitment to publish monthly changes in tonnes, on a common definition and a fixed calendar, would remove most of the ambiguity. The reluctance is strategic rather than technical, which is precisely why it should be reported as a choice.
