OREANDA-NEWS The Russian Central Bank has become the leader in terms of gold purchases on the international market. In 2018, he bought 274 tons of this precious metal — 42% of the total volume sold. Such statistics were given by the World Gold Council in the report "Dynamics of demand for gold".

Russia has been increasing the volume and share of gold in its reserves over the past 13 years, but it was in 2018 that the Central Bank significantly increased its purchases. The authors of the report explained this by the authorities' focus on de-dollarization. In practice, this has led to a decrease in investments not only in the dollar, but also in the bonds of the US Treasury. The money raised from the sale of these securities was used to purchase gold.

As a result of aggressive purchase of precious metal, the share of gold in Russia's reserves reached 18.5% by the end of 2018. This is the highest percentage in history. In monetary terms, the gold accumulated by the Central Bank is estimated at $87 billion.

Russia is more than five times surpassed its nearest competitor, Turkey, by purchase volume. The middle East Republic in 2018 acquired 51.5 million tons of gold. The third place in the ranking of the largest buyers was taken by Kazakhstan with a result of 50 million tons. The top five also included India and Hungary.

In total, all Central banks in the world increased purchases of gold by 74% compared to 2017. By the end of December, they purchased 651.5 million tons of precious metal. This is the largest volume in the last 47 years — the last time comparable investments in gold were observed in 1971. Now on the balance sheet of the Central Banks of all countries of the world there are 34 thousand tons of gold.