Gold purchases by central banks in February were led by the National Bank of Poland (NBP) and Uzbekistan but Turkiye and Russia turned sellers, data from the World Gold Council (WGC) showed.
Banks were net buyers of 19 tonnes, driven largely by a 20-tonne purchase by NBP. The Polish central bank resumed buying after a lull in January. It was its highest purchase after February 2025, when it bought 29 tonnes.
Marissa Salim, WGC’s senior research lead, APAC, said Poland now has 31 per cent of its reserves in gold at 570 tonnes. It has targeted to purchase 700 tonnes.
However, Adam Glapiński, the bank’s governor, has proposed generating $13 billion through potential sale of gold reserves to finance defence spending. The intention to “generate profits and to then buy it back”.
China’s buys continue
The track record of net buying maintained across some central banks with the Czech Republic reporting its 36th consecutive month of net buying. China’s net purchases continued for the 16th consecutive month, followed by Uzbekistan which has been buying for five consecutive months.
Uzbekistan bought 8 tonnes of gold in February, while Czech Republic and Malaysia purchased 2 tonnes each. China and Cambodia bought 1 tonne each.
Uzbekistan now has 407 tonnes of gold which makes up 88 per cent of its reserves. It bought another 8 tonnes in January.
Bank Negara Malaysia’s (the Malaysian central bank) continued to show interest to buy gold for the second month in a row in February. It bought 3 tonnes in January.
Biggest decline
The Czech National Bank has 75 tonnes of gold in its reserves, making up 7 per cent of its total reserves. The People’s Bank of China has 2,308 tonnes of gold reserves, which account for 10 per cent of its total reserves.
Turkiye sold 8 tonnes and Russia six tonnes of gold. It was the biggest decline in gold reserves in February, said Salim.
“In Turkiye’s case, the reduction appeared to be reflective of a decline in Treasury holdings, rather than central bank reserves based on our calculations. In March, however, the central bank was highly active, with our estimates indicating it utilised around 50 tonnes of its gold reserves for liquidity purposes and FX operations,” she said.
The Turkish central bank governor Fatih Karahan said a significant part of these transactions were in the nature of gold-currency swap futures. In other words, when it matures, the gold in question will return to the reserves.