The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) added 57.49 tonnes of gold to its foreign exchange kitty during the fiscal ended March 2025 with the value of the gold holding rising by 48.41 per cent amid the rise in the prices of the yellow metal.
The country’s central bank also brought 38.64 tonnes of its gold holding back to India from Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in FY 2025. With this, the RBI has brought back 88.60 tonnes of gold to India in the last two years.
The RBI held 879.59 metric tonnes of gold as of March 2025, of which 511.99 metric tonnes were held domestically. While 348.62 metric tonnes of gold were kept in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 18.98 metric tonnes were held in the form of gold deposits, the RBI said in its half-yearly report on forex management.
In March 2024, the central bank held 822.10 metric tonnes of gold, of which 408.31 metric tonnes were held domestically. While 387.26 metric tonnes of gold were kept in safe custody abroad and 26.53 metric tonnes were held in the form of gold deposits.
The value of gold held by the RBI rose by $ 25.50 billion to $ 78.17 billion as of March 2025 as against $ 52.67 billion a year ago. In value terms (USD), the share of gold in the total foreign exchange reserves increased from 9.32 per cent as at end-September 2024 to about 11.70 per cent as at end-March 2025, the RBI said.
According to the World Gold Council (WGC), central banks’ insatiable appetite for gold reached a significant milestone in 2024. Having added 712 tonnes in the first three quarters of the year, central banks bought a further 333 tonnes in Q4 to bring the net annual total to 1,045 tonnes. “As a result, they have extended their buying streak to 15 consecutive years, and, remarkably, 2024 is the third consecutive year in which demand surpassed 1,000 tonnes – far exceeding the 473 tonnes annual average between 2010-2021, and contributing to gold’s annual performance,” WGC said.
Among major gold holders, Germany leads with 3,351 tonnes of gold, followed by Italy 2,451 tonnes, France 2,437 tonnes and China 2,292 tonnes, WGC said,
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WGC said the RBI was once again a major purchaser in 2024, having bought gold every month before leaving reserves unchanged in December. Its annual purchases totalled 73 tonnes more than four times the level of its gold buying in 2023 (16 tonnes).
“The RBI was one of two banks – the other was the Central Bank of Nigeria – to disclose that it repatriated gold from overseas in 2024. Such activity represents a change only in location – not ownership – of gold, and therefore has no impact on our demand estimates. It does, however, highlight the fact that some banks place importance on domestic storage of gold,” WGC said.
The National Bank of Poland (NBP) was the largest gold buyer during the year, adding a further 90 tonnes to its gold reserves. The bank’s President, Adam Glapiński, has been a vocal proponent of owning gold and has previously been open about raising the NBP’s gold allocation to 20 per cent of total reserves. Following the accumulation last year, the bank’s gold reserves stood at 448 tonnes at the end of 2024 — 17 per cent of its total international reserves.
