New Delhi: In a massive boost to the economic and monetary performance of the country, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has added as many as 6.5 tonnes of gold to its reserve in January and is heading toward becoming the tenth largest holder of the metal globally. Post the January addition, India has 11th largest gold reserve in the world, with a total reserve of 607 tonnes, as per the latest report by the World Gold Council. The United States of America (USA) leads the chart with a total reserve of 8,133.5 tonnes of gold. As per the current report, it is expected that India might soon displace Netherlands which has a total of 612.5 tonnes of the metal.

It is also worth noting that India could have been on the tenth spot had the list included only countries. However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is included in the list with a total gold reserve of 2,814 tonnes. After the US, countries like Germany, Italy, France and Russia occupy the top spots.

Meanwhile, among Asian countries, China and Japan have more tonnes of gold reserve compared to India. China which is mentioned in the list as ‘Mainland China’ has reserves of 1,864.3 tonnes, whereas Japan has gold reserves of 765.2 tonnes.
The report shared by the WCC also states that India’s share of gold held globally has been rising steadily to stand at 6.2 per cent at the end of 2018 and has gone up further in January. As a matter of fact, gold is considered to be a better hedge against the dollar than any other currencies of the world.

List of top 10 countries with major gold reserve

 (Source: WGC)

Global gold reserves in January rose by as much as 35 tonnes on a net basis (gross purchases of 48 tonnes less gross sales of 13 tonnes), with sizeable purchases by nine central banks, the report added.

Other countries like Taiwan, Portugal, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom (UK), Lebanon and Spain, along with the European Central Bank, come in the top 20 list of largest gold reserves.