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Informist, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024

 

By Sandeep Sinha

 

MUMBAI – The Reserve Bank of India surpassed Bank of Japan to become the ninth-largest holder of gold reserves in August, according to World Gold Council data analysed by Informist. RBI's gold reserves in August were at an all-time high of 848.98 tonne compared with Bank of Japan's gold reserves of 846 tonne, according to the WGC data.

 

In August, global central banks net bought 8 tonne of gold, the lowest since March, the WGC said, quoting IMF data. The National Bank of Poland bought 6 tonne of gold, Central Bank of Turkey and the RBI purchased 3 tonne each, and the Czech National Bank bought 2 tonne of gold. On the other hand, the Central Bank of Kazakhstan sold 5 tonne of gold in August.

 

The US held the largest reserves of gold in August at 8,133.5 tonne, followed by Germany at 3,351.7 tonne, Italy 2,451.9 tonne, France 2,436.9 tonne, the Russian Federation 2,335.9 tonne, China 2,264.3 tonne, and Switzerland 1,040.1 tonne. International Monetary Fund held 2,813.9 tonne of gold in August.

 

So far in 2024 till August, the RBI was the second-highest net buyer of gold at 45.4 tonne. The central bank of Turkey was the biggest net buyer of gold at 52 tonne in Jan-Aug. The share of the precious metal in the RBI's total reserves was 8.8% as on Aug 30. In 2023, the Indian central bank had bought 16.2 tonne of gold.

 

"The RBI has been a leading purchaser of gold this year, having bought 45.4 tn of it over the first eight months of the year, with purchases occurring each month. The uncertain global geopolitical situation has resulted in trade tensions, political instability, and conflicts, all of which have made gold an appealing asset for central banks," Renisha Chainani, research head at Augmont Gold For All.

 

At the ET Now Leadership Dialogues on Jun 18, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said, "We have been buying gold that is because our priority is to diversify the deployment of our forex reserves in more currencies and in different kinds of assets particularly gold and if you look at the long-term price of gold, gold prices in the long run have always increased."  End

 

US$1 = INR 83.97

 

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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