The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) shifted over 100 tonnes of gold from the UK to its vaults in the country for the first time since 1991. Over half of central bank’s gold reserves are held overseas in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank of International Settlements while a third of it is stored domestically. The move will help RBI save storage costs that it pays to the Bank of England.
As per RBI’s annual data, the central held held 822.10 tonnes worth of gold as a part of its foreign exchange reserves as of March 31, 2024. This was up from 794.63 tonnes held during the same period last year.
In 1991, the government had pledged the precious metal to tackle the balance of payments crisis as between July 4 and 18, 1991, the central bank pledged 46.91 tonnes of gold with the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan to raise $400 million. Around 15 years ago, RBI bought 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In 2009, the government bought 200 tonnes of gold valued at $6.7 billion to diversify its assets and over the last few years, the RBI has maintained a steady build-up in gold stocks through purchases.
Share of gold in India’s total foreign exchange reserves increased from 7.75 per cent at the end of December 2023 to 8.7 per cent as of April 2024 end. Gold is held in vaults in RBI’s building on Mumbai’s Mint Road as well as Nagpur.
As per a World Gold Council report, global central banks own about 17 per cent of all the gold ever mined and have reserves of 36,699 metric tons (MT) as of year-end 2023.
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