Central banks continued to add gold to reserves in July, with total reported net purchases reaching 23 tons. China and Poland led the buying group, showing that demand from the formal sector is still one of the important pillars of the gold market.
According to Ms. Marissa Salim - Head of the Asia-Pacific region research group at the World Gold Council (WGC), emerging markets continued to accumulate gold in July. China bought 20 tons, while Poland bought 8 tons, leading the list of central banks buying gold in the month.
The Czech National Bank also continued to maintain the accumulation trend with 2 tons of gold in July. This is the 41st consecutive month that this bank has net bought gold. Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Bolivia each bought an additional 1 ton.
Notably, gold currently accounts for 75% of Kazakhstan's total reserves, showing the country's increasing dependence on precious metals in its reserve asset structure.
In the opposite direction, Russia was the country that sold the most net gold in July with 6 tons, followed by Turkey, Jordan and Uzbekistan, each selling 1 ton.
China accelerates gold purchases
Since the beginning of 2026, Poland continues to lead the world in gold purchases with 90 tons. The total amount of gold accumulated by this country has reached 640 tons, approaching the target of 700 tons and equivalent to about 28% of total reserves.
China ranked second with 60 tons of gold added from the beginning of the year. July also marked the 21st consecutive month that the People's Bank of China (PBoC) bought gold.
According to the WGC, China's official gold reserves currently reach about 2,366 tons, equivalent to 8% of total reserves, making it the country with the sixth largest announced gold reserves in the world.
Notably, PBoC's gold buying rate has increased in recent months. The Central Bank of China recorded monthly purchases from two digits since May 2026.
Uzbekistan is also in the active gold accumulation group, with 40 tons purchased from the beginning of the year. Gold currently accounts for about 87% of the country's total reserves, equivalent to about 431 tons.
Kazakhstan bought 29 tons from the beginning of the year, while the Czech National Bank bought 12 tons, raising its gold holdings to 84 tons, equivalent to 6% of total reserves.
In total, central banks announced the purchase of about 130 tons of gold in the first 7 months of 2026, lower than the level of about 160 tons in the same period of 2025.
Official demand continues to lay the foundation for gold
On the selling side, Russia has sold a total of 50 tons of gold this year, bringing its gold reserves to 2,277 tons. Turkey has also sold 85 tons since the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, some central banks continue to send signals about plans to increase the proportion of gold in reserves.
The Bank of Korea (BOK) recently announced the official allocation of gold after 13 years, through gold-guaranteed ETFs, with an estimated value of about 250 million USD, equivalent to about 2 tons of gold. BOK also plans to buy domestically refined gold to diversify reserves.
In Namibia, the central bank aims to increase the proportion of gold in reserves from 1% to 3% by the end of March 2027. The agency has signed a gold purchase agreement with QKR Namibia Navachab, a domestic gold mining company.
The above moves show that central banks still maintain a trend of increasing the role of gold in the reserve structure. Although the reported purchase volume in 2026 is lower than the same period last year, demand from the formal sector continues to create an important foundation for the market.
In particular, China's acceleration of gold purchases and Poland's approach to the 700-ton reserve target show that the accumulation trend of central banks shows no signs of reversal. This is considered one of the factors that may continue to support gold prices in the long term.
