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Informist, Wednesday, Jun. 4, 2025

MUMBAI – Purchase of gold by global central banks slowed in April, with their net buys at 12 tonnes, down 12% from a month ago, the World Gold Council said in a report. The figure for April was also lower than the 12-month average of 28 tonnes, according to the report, penned by Krishan Gopaul, senior analyst at the council.

The recent sharp rise in prices of the yellow metal, which broke record levels multiple times, could be one of the reasons for the slowdown in April. "It (the slowdown) may, in part, be a response to the rapid appreciation in the gold price since the start of the year. While the rally to multiple new record highs is unlikely to deter central banks from buying gold – as they tend to be more strategic in nature – it could explain some of the deceleration in the pace of monthly net buying," the report said.

The National Bank of Poland continued to be the largest central bank buyer of gold in April, taking its reserves to 509 tonnes, WGC said. The Czech National Bank added 3 tonnes, taking its reserves to 59 tonnes. People's Bank of China increased its gold reserves by 2 tonnes in April to 2,294 tonnes.

According to the report, the only central bank to have sold gold in April was the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, whose reserves declines by 11 tonnes during the month.

Reserve Bank of India desisted from buying gold in April, maintaining its reserves at 880 tonnes, the report said.

Several African central banks plan to boost their gold reserves, the report said, quoting Bank of Namibia, National Bank of Rwanda, Bank of Uganda, Central Bank of Madagascar, and Central Bank of Kenya.

As a note of caution for interpreting the data, the report said that central banks' activities in buying or selling gold in "one month is not necessarily an indication of activity in subsequent months. What's more, data can be released with, at times, a significant lag. As such, we caution against reading too much into this recent slowdown in reported purchases. And while higher prices may have pushed up gold allocations in some central bank portfolios, possibly closer to targets, we still expect overall buying to continue, given that the economic and geopolitical outlook remains highly uncertain."   End

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Abhijit Doshi

Edited by Avishek Dutta

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