World Central Banks Added 273 Tonnes of Gold in 2020, Says WGC

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Gold Demand Trends report published by the World Gold Council (WGC) noted that official gold reserves by world central banks surged higher for the eleventh consecutive year in 2020.

According to WGC report, central banks added nearly 273 tonnes of gold in 2020. This was the lowest tonnage of purchases since 2010. The annual purchases during the previous year were down significantly by almost 60%, when matched with the record purchases of 669 tonnes witnessed in 2019. The banks reported gold outflow in H2 last year. However, central banks resumed purchases in Q4. The Q4 net purchases of 44.8 tonnes of gold were down sharply by 68% over the previous year quarter.

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The largest buyer was the Turkish central bank, which added 134.5 tonnes to its official gold reserves during the previous year. This has lifted the country’s total gold reserves to 547 tonnes, accounting for 42% of the total reserves. India added 38 tonnes during the year, thus making it the second largest buyer. In third place was Russia, which added 27.4 tonnes of gold to its reserves. The other countries to add to their gold holdings were the UAE (23.9 tonnes), Qatar (14.5 tonnes) and Cambodia (5 tonnes).

Seven countries- Germany, Philippines, Colombia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Sri Lanka reduced their gold reserves over the year in 2020, said WGC report.