Poland Aims to Increase Gold Reserves

(September 27th, 2021 - The First News)

Poland wants to build up its gold reserves, the head of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) has said in an interview.

Speaking to the DoRzeczy.pl website, Adam Glapinski indicated the drive to expand the nation's gold reserves would be influenced by market conditions.

"Gold is the 'best reserve' of our reserve assets," said Glapinski, adding: "it diversifies geopolitical risk and is a sort of anchor of confidence, especially in times of tension and crisis."

"Therefore, continuing the current policy, we will strive to increase our gold resources, but the scale and pace of purchases will depend on, among other factors, the dynamics of change in official reserve assets and current market conditions," he continued.

At the end of August 2021, the NBP gold stock amounted to 230.2 tonnes.

"Gold resources held by the National Bank of Poland are almost twice as large as in Sweden (126 tonnes), similar to Belgium (227 tonnes) and slightly less than in Austria and Spain (280 tonnes)," said Glapinski.

"With its gold holdings, the NBP ranks 23rd among central banks in the world and 11th among European central banks. In addition to absolute values, it is also important how much gold is part of the total assets of a central bank. In this approach, the NBP - with a share of 6.5 percent. - it is at a similar level, or even slightly higher than that of central banks in Germany or the United States," he added.

The NBP president also pointed out that less than half of Poland's gold reserves were located in Poland.

"Nearly half of the gold stock, 104.9 tonnes, is kept in the vaults of the National Bank of Poland, while the remaining 125.4 tonnes are kept in accounts abroad, mainly in the Bank of England vaults in London," said the NBP president.