The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) added another 102 metric tonnes to its gold reserves in the April-September period, as disclosed on Tuesday.
The total amount of precious metal stored in local safes stood at 510.46 metric tonnes as of September 30, up from over 408 metric tonnes as of March 31, 2024.
The central bank said it added another 32 tonnes of gold reserves over a six-month period to bring the total to 854.73 metric tonnes, according to the semi-annual report of the foreign exchange management.
India has been gradually moving its gold reserves to local warehouses — said to be located in the financial capital and Nagpur — over the past few years. In FY24, it had moved 100 metric tons more from the UK to domestic destinations.
The move, which took place at a time of global political tension, is said to be one of the biggest gold moves by India since 1991, when it had to pledge a large portion of its gold holdings in foreign trade. the problem that led to its exit from the basement.
The RBI disclosure said that 324.01 metric tonnes of gold are kept in safe custody with the Bank of England and the bank for international settlements (BIS) and 20.26 metric tonnes are kept in the form of gold deposits.
According to price statistics, the share of gold in foreign exchange reserves increased from 8.15 percent at the end of March 2024 to about 9.32 percent at the end of September 2024 due to increase in tonnage and increase in prices. .
As of March this year, 413.79 metric tonnes of gold was held abroad, according to the RBI’s annual report.
In late May, sources had revealed that a call had been made to reduce foreign holdings as part of the regular review process.
In 2009, India had bought 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), after which it bought the precious commodity on the secondary market as part of its foreign exchange efforts.
Generally, officials of the Finance Ministry, RBI and other agencies maintain the movement of gold in complete secrecy given the high value, according to sources.