Russia adds 18.6 tonnes of gold to reserves

Russia added 18.6 tonnes of gold to its reserves in January added and thus overtakes China in the ranking of countries with the largest gold reserves. With the purchase of 600,000 troy ounces, Russia's total gold reserves amount to 59.7 million troy ounces, half a million more than China's official stockpile.

Russia buys precious metal almost every month, while the central bank of China has not added any precious metal to its reserves in recent months. Both countries are looking for more diversification for their foreign exchange reserves and are therefore converting part of their dollars into precious metals. Since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, both countries have added more than a thousand tonnes of gold to their reserves as a hedge against a possible depreciation of foreign exchange reserves.

Russia now has more gold than China

Russia Adds Gold to Reserves

Russia started in 2006 with Buy gold and sticks to this strategy to this day. Since 2014, the central bank of Russia has been accelerating its efforts to expand its gold reserves, possibly due to the threat of economic sanctions by Western countries. The risk of being cut off from the international payment system and the possibility of currency reserves being blocked was reason enough for the central bank to buy more gold and to develop its own payment system for banks.

Central banks have been net buyers of the yellow metal since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, but the purchases have been accounted for by only a handful of countries. In addition to China and Russia, India, Kazakhstan and Turkey have also made some major purchases in recent years. Western central banks stopped trading after 2008 Selling gold, but still dominate the ranking of countries with the largest official gold reserves. The United States still has the most precious metals, followed at a distance by Germany, Italy and France. Russia took fifth place in the rankings with the purchase of 600,000 troy ounces in January.

Russia buys the precious metal largely from the gold mining sector in its own country. These purchases go through commercial banks, which buy the precious metal from the mines. Russia is the third largest producer in the world with an annual production of about 250 tons of gold.

Western countries still have the largest gold reserves (Source: Bloomberg)