The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has brought a large part of its foreign gold reserves into the country, amid concerns the West has frozen more than $300 billion in Russian assets, including both state and private assets.
The Central Bank of India's six-year report on foreign exchange reserves said that the share of domestic gold reserves has increased sharply. In the first 6 months of the current financial year (April - September), this bank brought about 64 tons of gold from abroad to India.
As of the end of September, the total amount of gold reserves of the Central Bank of India was 880.18 tons, of which 575.82 tons were stored in India.
The remaining reserves of gold of the Central Bank of India include 290.37 tons of gold deposited at the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank for International payments (BIS) along with 13.99 tons in the form of gold deposits.
Data from the Central Bank of India shows that the South Asian country has gradually shifted its gold reserves to the country in recent years.
Last October, the central bank of India transferred 102 tons of gold from the Bank of England and the International Payment Bank to the country.
By May this year, the bank continued to bring an additional 100 tons back into the country. This is considered one of the biggest gold movements since the 1990s, according to analysts.
One of the main reasons for India's acceleration of gold shipments is that the G7 countries have frozen Russia's foreign currency reserves after the Ukraine conflict escalated.
Mr. Ritesh Jain - founder of Pinetree Macro investment fund - shared with Economic Times that the Central Bank of India needs to speed up the bringing of gold into the country. "In this new period, if you don't directly hold your gold, gold doesn't really belong to you," he noted.
Recently, founder of Citadel Securities Fund, Mr. Ken Griffin, also commented that investors are increasingly viewing gold as a safer asset than the USD. Long considered a global reserve currency, the US dollar has weakened against most major currencies this year, following uncertainties over the US's import tax hike.
On the world gold market, the spot gold price today (November 1) decreased compared to yesterday morning (October 31), listed around 4,003.1 USD/ounce (equivalent to 127.5 million VND/tael converted at Vietcombank exchange rate, excluding taxes and fees). World gold prices generally decreased by 22.5 USD/ounce, equivalent to a decrease of 0.56% in the past 24 hours and increased by 135.5 USD/ounce, equivalent to an increase of 3.51% in the past 30 days. Currently, the world gold price is about 19.4 million VND/tael lower than the domestic gold price.
The current developments in gold prices take place in the context of the recent US Bank of America (BofA) assessment that the gold market will enter a new price increase cycle, which can last until 2026. At the 2025 Global Precious metals Market Conference of the London Gold Market Association (LBMA) held from October 26-28, experts also expect gold prices to increase to 4,980.30 USD/ounce at this time next year.
