Financial safety

Five countries with the world’s biggest gold reserves

For 5,000 years, gold has proven its status as the ultimate store of value. Today’s investors rush to buy the precious metal at the faintest market uncertainty. Over the past decade, global central banks have joined the gold rush.

The volumes of gold gobbled by regulators across the world in 2018 reached the second highest annual total on record, the World Gold Council (WGC) reported earlier this year. The industry research firm highlighted that last year central banks bought 651.5 metric tons of the precious metal, marking a 74 percent year-on-year increase.

Gold ownership by monetary regulators is at a 50-year high with the following states currently making up the list of the world’s biggest holders of gold.