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Central banks buy most gold in 55 years

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January 31, 2023

Central banks loaded up gold in 2022, a total of 1,136 tons or $70 billion. This represents the largest gold purchase since 1967, according to a report by Reuters.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, many central banks sold off gold, but since the financial crisis of 2008, emerging economies began to pick up gold, including Russia, Turkey and India.

Central banks are attracted to gold as it maintains its value during economic downturns and does not rely on issuers or governments. Banks can also diversify its assets away from the U.S. dollar.

"This is a continuation of a trend," Krishan Gopaul, analyst, World Gold Council, said in the report. "You can see those drivers feeding into what happened last year. You had on the geopolitical front and the macroeconomic front a lot of uncertainty and volatility."

Around two-thirds of the purchased gold was not reported publicly. Some of the banks that did not report their stockpiles include China and Russia.