IMF: Official Gold Reserves with World Central Banks

The Turkish central bank emerged as the largest gold buyer in 2019.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The world official gold holdings as of beginning of March 2020 were published yesterday. Among central banks across the world, the U.S. has managed to top the list with highest gold reserves.

The U.S. central bank gold reserves, at 8,133.50 tonnes, accounted for almost 80% of the country’s total reserves. In second spot was Germany, whose gold reserves totalled 3,366.5 tonnes. It accounted for 74% of the total reserves. IMF with total gold holdings of 2,814 tonnes was ranked third.

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The other countries that featured in top-10 list of countries with highest gold reserves were Italy (2,451.8 tonnes), France (2,436 tonnes), Russian Federation (2,279.2 tonnes), Chinese Mainland (1,948.36 tonnes), Switzerland (1,040 tonnes), Japan (765.2 tonnes) and India (635 tonnes).

The above gold reserve data is compiled using IMF IFS statistics. It tracks central banks’ reported purchases and sales. The latest data indicate that gold continues to play an important part in reserve management.

It must be noted that net gold purchases by world central banks had surged higher for the tenth consecutive year in 2019. The central banks around the world added 650.3 tonnes of gold to official gold reserves during the year. The Turkish central bank emerged as the largest gold buyer in 2019.