Global central banks purchased 19 tons of gold in February

In February, according to preliminary estimates from the World Gold Council (WGC), world central banks purchased 19.1 tons of gold for gold and foreign exchange reserves. This is 2.4 times less than the updated January results (45.4 tons), and yet the increase has continued for 9 months in a row, Report informs referring to Interfax.

Banks in developing countries such as China and India remain the demand drivers, WGC analyst Krishan Gopaul notes in his review. The slower pace of reserve replenishment in February had little impact on the overall trend in purchases by central banks, he wrote.

In February, China purchased 12.1 tons of gold for reserves, India - 5.6 tons. Also, among the large buyers were Kazakhstan (5.8 tons), Türkiye (4.2 tons) and Singapore (2.1 tons), the Czech Republic, Qatar and Kyrgyzstan bought another 1-2 tons each.

The largest seller in February was Uzbekistan, which reduced the volume of gold in its reserves by 11.8 tons. Also, a significant volume (3.9 tons) was sold by the Central Bank of Jordan.