Russian Central Bank Decides to Restart Gold Purchases

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced its decision to resume gold purchases after a gap of just under two years.

The country had been a consistent buyer of gold assets all through the past decade, thus lending support to gold prices. The country had stopped purchasing gold in March 2020, after gold prices touched fresh peaks following Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, it has been maintaining its gold reserves unchanged. It must be noted that the Bank of Russia had rapidly accumulated gold for a period of almost six years continuously, thereby doubling its gold holdings.

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The statement issued by the bank noted that it will begin gold purchases on the domestic precious metals market. The recent decision follows sanctions imposed on the monetary authority and several of its commercial banks, in response to the country’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

As per most recent data published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Russian Central Bank has total gold holdings of more than 2,000 tons. Also, gold accounts for almost one-fifth of Russia’s total reserves.

The World Gold Council, in its yearly report, said that central banks around the world added 463 tons of gold to their reserves during the previous year.