From July to September, central banks around the world purchased 337 tons of gold. This is a 27% decrease compared to the third quarter of 2022, according to the World Gold Council.
The bulk of the purchases came from several leading players.
The sales volume fell to a minimum – the only active seller was the National Bank of Kazakhstan, which sold 4 tons of precious metal during the quarter.
The leading buyer of gold was the People's Bank of China, which replenished its reserves by 78 tons – now the volume of its reserves amounts to 2,192 tons. In second place is the National Bank of Poland with 57 tons, and its total reserves reached 334 tons.
After major sales in the spring, the Central Bank of Türkiye resumed gold purchases, replenishing reserves by 39 tons and taking third place in the WGC ranking. Next, with a noticeable lag, is the Reserve Bank of India – 9 tons.
The top 5 is completed by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, which increased its gold reserves by 6.5 tons in Q3. However, since the beginning of the year, the country’s reserves decreased by more than 12 tons.
This approximately corresponds to the Central Bank's own information on gold and foreign exchange reserves. If on July 1 the tonnage of gold reserves was 376.2 tons, then three months later it increased to 382.57 tons.
The largest reduction in the volume of gold in the regulator’s reserves was observed in July – down by 9.3 tons. At the same time, the Statistics Agency noted a revenue of $1.26 billion from the export of precious metals for the month.
In August, the Central Bank bought 9 tons of gold, almost completely compensating for the July reduction. This means that just under 7 tons were purchased in September.
According to the Central Bank’s own data, expenses for the purchase of monetary gold increased by almost 20% in July-September.
