India building up gold reserves, says Das

Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said India has been building up gold reserves as part of its forex deployment.

• Also read:RBI’s forex reserves build-up leads to a huge $64.182 billion accretion in FY24 so far

“We are building up gold reserves that is a part of our reserve deployment,” Das told reporters at the customary post-policy review press conference here.

He did not give any specifics on the quantum of gold buys, but pointed to the official data which shows an increase in the value of gold reserves.

Per official data, the value of gold in the forex reserves stood at $51.487 billion as on March 22, which is $6.287 billion higher than the value as at end-March 2023.

Per a recent news report, RBI bought 8.7 tonnes of the bullion metal in January alone — the highest in two years.

The central bank’s gold holdings had touched 812.3 tonnes at the end of January from 803.58 tonnes in the preceding month, as per the World Gold Council.