Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. You will remember that in 1991, when India did not have foreign currency for imports, India had to pledge 67 tonnes of its gold to take a loan of $ 2.2 billion. The then central government was forced to take this decision. But that picture has changed now. India has not only redeemed the pledged gold, but today RBI has 8 percent of the world's total reserve gold. According to information, due to the global economic situation and Corona epidemic, the Reserve Bank of India has fiercely purchased gold and according to the data, between March 2020 and March 2023, RBI bought 137.19 tonnes of gold. As of now, RBI's gold reserves have jumped by 79 cents in just three years.

RBI has gold reserves of 790 tonnes

All the central benchmarks of the world have bought gold during this period. After purchasing more than 137 tonnes of gold in the last three years, in terms of gold reserves, India placed at number eight among all the central banks of the world. In March 2020, the reserve share of gold in the total foreign exchange reserves of the authority was 6 per cent, which is increasing to close to 7.85 per cent. The gold reserve with the subscriber has increased to more than 790 tonnes. As of March 2019, the RBI had total gold reserves of 612.56 tonnes, 653 tonnes in March 2020, 695.31 tonnes in March 2021, 760.42 tonnes in March 2022 and now it has crossed 790 tonnes. That is, RBI has bought more than 30 tonnes of gold in a year. In four years, the authority has procured 178 tonnes of gold.

Gold has more credibility than foreign currency

In the environment of global economic and political instability, when the risk is more visible, then investment in gold increases for hedging. In such a situation, gold also plays the role of cross border currency. When the Central Bank prints more currency, it becomes necessary to increase the gold reserve to support it. Gold has more credibility than foreign currency, so in such a situation, central banks increase the purchase of gold. According to the World Gold Council, all the central banks around the world were engaged in buying gold in view of the economic upheaval, so the RBI also did not lag behind. In 2022, central banks around the world have bought 1136 tonnes of gold, which is the highest since 1967.