LONDON, Sept. 5 — Central banks kept buying gold in July, but the pace is cooling. Net reported purchases came to 23 tonnes for the month, according to World Gold Council data released on September 3, with emerging-market institutions again doing the heavy lifting. The mechanics here are worth parsing.
The People’s Bank of China added 20 tonnes in July, extending a run of double-digit monthly purchases that has held since May. Poland’s National Bank bought 8 tonnes.
On the sell side, Russia was the top net seller, offloading 6 tonnes, with Turkey, Jordan and Uzbekistan each selling 1 tonne. The catch is in the year-on-year comparison. Through July 2026, central banks have reported net purchases of roughly 130 tonnes, against about 160 tonnes over the same stretch in 2025.
Accumulation is still happening — it is just slower.
New entrants, old disputes
The Bank of Korea made its first official gold allocation in 13 years, a move estimated at US$250 million, or roughly 2 tonnes, executed through gold-backed exchange-traded funds. Seoul says it plans to buy domestically refined gold to diversify reserves and hedge against inflation and geopolitical risk. Follow the money on the Bank of England front, and you land on a long-frozen dispute.
Venezuela has asked London to repatriate approximately US$4 billion of its gold reserves, funds it has been unable to touch since 2018, when the UK government declined to recognise the country’s socialist administration. The request is tied to reconstruction efforts following the 2026 earthquake.
The World Gold Council’s 2026 Central Banks Gold Reserves Survey flags a related trend: more central banks want to increase domestic storage and diversify where they hold gold overseas. That dovetails with the Bank of Namibia’s stated target of lifting gold from 1% to 3% of total reserves by the end of March 2027, backed by a purchase agreement signed in March with local miner QKR Namibia Navachab. What to watch next: whether China sustains its monthly pace, and whether the Bank of England’s stance on Venezuela shifts under pressure.
The data, compiled from the IMF, individual central banks and the World Gold Council, covers activity through July 31.
