Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: India is steadily building up gold reserves as part of foreign exchange deployment, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday.
The value of gold in the forex reserves stood at USD 51.487 billion as of March 22, which is USD 6.287 billion higher than the value as of end-March 2023, he said.
“We are building up gold reserves that are a part of our reserve deployment,” Das told reporters at the customary post-policy review press conference in Mumbai.
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.
The central bank bought 8.7 tons of the bullion metal in January 2024 alone — the highest in two years.
The central bank’s gold holdings had touched 812.3 tons at the end of January 2024 from 803.58 tons in the preceding month, as per the World Gold Council.