Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. It is a very old saying that gold comes in handy in times of crisis and this is why many people keep gold as collateral in hard times. The gold standard applies to everyone and therefore, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has good gold reserves. Over the past several years, the RBI has bought a large amount of gold (reserve). If you look at the international developments, RBI has bought about 100 tonnes of gold in just two years. India has huge reserves of gold and it ranks 9th in the list of top-10 countries of the world. So where does the central bank keep so much gold? The Reserve Bank had issued a report in 2022 and Accordingly, India has about 754 tonnes of gold reserves. Maximum gold has been bought in the last five years. You will be shocked to see the speed at which the central bank is buying gold. The bank had made a fast track record of buying gold.

RBI was the third largest gold buyer in 2021

The central bank bought 132.34 tonnes of gold between April 2022 and September 2022 alone. RBI has become the only central bank in the world to buy so much gold in a year. RBI was the third largest gold buyer in 2021. In 2020, the bank bought only 41.68 tonnes of gold. The Reserve Bank has maximum gold abroad. RBI has given information about this. and according to this, in the total gold reserves of India, 296.48 tonnes of gold has been kept safe within the country. While 447.30 tonnes of gold has been kept safe in foreign banks. Most of this is kept with the Bank of England. That's why a few tonnes of gold is safe in Switzerland. This amount is safe here in the Bank of International Settlements (BIS).

America has the maximum gold

If we look at the total gold reserves of the world, America has the maximum gold. The US holds about 75 percent of the world's total gold reserves. According to an estimate, America has about 8,133 tonnes of gold and Germany is at number two in this list. Germany has 3,359 tonnes of gold while China ranks sixth in this list. China has 1,948 tonnes of gold. Asia has only three countries in the top 10 gold reserves.

Why RBI buys so much gold ?

Now you must be wondering why RBI buys so much gold. So why keep it in foreign banks? Why is RBI not bringing this stock into the country? It is not easy to buy such a large amount of gold and bring it to the country. It is not easy to secure and transport it. If there is an economic crisis, the risk of sending gold abroad again cannot be taken. Then there is a lot of expenditure. Financial crisis hit India in 1990-91. At that time India had to keep 67 tonnes of gold in the Bank of England and the Union Bank of Switzerland.