Central Bank Gold Reserves

Common questions

What are central-bank monetary gold reserves?

Monetary gold reserves are the physical gold a country's central bank or treasury holds as an official reserve asset, reported in metric tonnes. It is the gold on the monetary authority's own balance sheet — not privately held bullion, jewelry, or gold in the ground. Countries report these holdings to the International Monetary Fund, which publishes them in its International Financial Statistics (IFS).

Why do central banks hold gold?

Central banks hold gold as a reserve asset that carries no credit or counterparty risk and is nobody else's liability, which is why it sits alongside foreign-currency reserves. It is used to diversify away from any single currency, as a long-term store of value, and historically as a backstop of confidence in the national balance sheet. This page reports the holdings; it does not offer a view on what any central bank will do next.

Which countries hold the most gold?

The United States is by far the largest official holder at roughly 8,100 tonnes, followed by Germany, Italy, and France. Russia and China hold large and, in China's case, steadily growing reserves, while accumulators such as Turkey, India, and Poland have added meaningfully in recent years. This page shows each tracked country's latest reported holding and its full monthly history.

How much gold are central banks buying?

The scoreboard at the top of this page sums the trailing-12-month change in reported holdings across the largest official holders tracked here — showing which added gold and which sold, and the net. This is only the biggest holders, not the whole official sector: the World Gold Council estimates central banks worldwide bought on the order of 1,000 tonnes over the past year, well above the tracked-holder net, because much of the buying comes from China and other banks that report to the IMF irregularly or aren't tracked here. Figures come from IMF reserve reports.

Which central bank is buying the most gold?

The net-demand summary names the tracked country that added the most gold over the trailing 12 months. In recent years the largest accumulators have been emerging-market central banks — China, Turkey, Poland, and India among them — diversifying reserves away from the US dollar, while the big Western holders (the US, Germany, Italy, France) have kept their holdings broadly flat. The figure shown reflects reported changes; a country that reports irregularly can understate its true buying.

How often is this data updated?

The IMF publishes monetary gold reserves monthly through its International Financial Statistics, but reporting runs a month or two behind, so the newest reading here is commonly a month or two old. Each country card labels the exact observation month, and the page refreshes as new IFS data is released.