London bullion market players are racing to borrow gold from central banks, which store bullion in London, following a surge in gold deliveries to the United States on speculation of potential import tariffs there,

The pound was little changed on Thursday as markets were focused on a raft of major central bank meetings that will culminate with the Bank of England next week.

People can’t get their hands on gold because so much has been shipped to New York, and the rest is stuck in the queue,” one industry executive was quoted as saying.

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The minimum waiting time to load gold out of the Bank of England, which stores gold for central banks, has reached four weeks, one of the sources said. In normal times, the release time is a few days or a week.

A surge in gold shipments to the US has led to a shortage of bullion in London, as traders amass an $82bn stockpile in New York over fears of Trump administration tariffs.

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Deliveries to the US left less free-float metal in London vaults, the metal that is not owned by central banks or holdings of physically-backed gold exchange-traded funds. This in turn boosted demand from players in London who are ready to lease their gold and make it available to the OTC market.

The Bank of England faces an extra dilemma ahead of next week’s interest-rate decision, with the slump in the value of the pound threatening to add to resurgent price pressures.