With RBI’s aggressive gold buying, India now holds 9th largest yellow metal reserve

Is the Reserve Bank of India slowing down its gold purchase? In August, RBI’s gold purchase was much lower after months of aggressive buying.

Amid the global uncertainties, the RBI like many other central banks in the world has been boosting its gold reserves. India, which now has 781 tonnes of the yellow metal, is the ninth largest gold-holding country in the world.

According to Oilprice.com, since resuming buying in late 2017, the RBI purchased over 200 tonnes of gold.

In 2021, the RBI emerged as the second largest buyer of gold in the world second only to the Central Bank of Thailand which bought 90 metric tonnes of gold. RBI purchased 77.5 metric tonnes in 2021. The US, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, China, Switzerland and Japan are the countries which have more reserves than India.

Central banks across the world added 463 tons of gold to their global reserves in 2021—82 per cent higher than 2020, Oilprice.com said.

This year, the central banks of Turkey, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Kazakhstan were the top gold buyers.

Gold as a reserve is considered most valuable in times of economic crisis and uncertainties.

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