Reserve Bank’s gold reserves rose 4.5% to 794.64 tonnes in 2022-23

The gold reserves as of March 31, 2023, included gold deposits of 56.32 metric tonnes, according to the RBI’s half-yearly report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves- October 2022 – March 2023.

“While 437.22 metric tonnes of gold is held overseas in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), 301.10 metric tonnes of gold is held domestically,” the report said.

As of March 31, 2023, the country’s total foreign exchange reserves stood at $578.449 billion, and gold reserves were at $45.2 billion.

In value terms (USD), the share of gold in the total foreign exchange reserves increased from about 7 per cent at end-March 2022 to about 7.81 per cent as at end-March 2023. The share of gold reserves to the country’s total forex reserves stood at 7.06 per cent as of end-September 2022.

A recent World Gold Council (WGC) report showed that the RBI added 7 metric tonnes of gold in January-March 2023.

The RBI has been building up its gold reserves for the last five-six years.

Other central banks have also been buying gold. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey have been buying gold amid the dollar’s depreciation, negative interest rates, and as part of the diversification of their foreign exchange reserves.

The latest WGC report showed that MAS was the largest single buyer of gold (69 metric tonnes) during January-March 2023.

“Central bank buying remains robust, with little to indicate that this will change in the short term,” WGC said in the report.