Net Gold Purchases by Central Banks Surged for Tenth Straight Year

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The central banks across the globe recorded tenth straight year of net gold purchases in 2019, said the latest ‘Gold Demand Trends’ report published by the World Gold Council (WGC).

The global central banks added 650.3 tonnes of gold to official gold reserves during the previous year. This is marginally lower by almost 1% when compared with 656.2 tonnes added in 2018. The 2019 purchases were the second highest level of annual purchases in almost five decades. A total of 15 central banks recorded net purchases exceeding one tonne. The central bank gold purchases during the fourth quarter of 2019 totaled 109.6 tonnes, WGC noted.

ALSO READ: Robust ETF Inflows Fuelled Gold Investment Demand

The Turkish central bank emerged as the largest gold buyer, adding 159 tonnes to its gold reserves. The net purchases by Polish central bank totaled around 100 tonnes, surging higher by almost four times when compared with purchases of just 25.7 tonnes in 2018. The Chinese central bank gold reserves witnessed addition of 95.8 tonnes in 2019.

Meantime, central banks in Kazakhstan and India added 35 tonnes and 32.7 tonnes of gold respectively to their official gold reserves. The other banks to add more than 10 tonnes during the year were the UAE (13.5t), Qatar (11t), Ecuador (10.6t) and Serbia (10t).