According to the World Gold Council, (WGC) global central banks in February increased their purchases of gold to replenish reserves by a third compared with January. In February, regulators bought 36 tons of gold.

However, the increase in purchases is observed only in comparison with January of this year. Compared to the same period last year, the indicator, on the contrary, decreased by 52%.

Since the beginning of the year, global regulators have purchased 64.5 tons of gold. This is 44% less than for the same period in 2018.

Turkey, which bought 24.8 tons, became the leader in replenishing gold and foreign exchange reserves with precious metal. In addition, Russia is among the largest buyers, replenishing stocks of 10.9 tons. Theoretically, Australia should enter the top 3, which, according to the IMF, bought 7 tons of gold, but the WGC has not yet included it in the list. Perhaps due to the fact that some IMF data is delayed. So officially Kazakhstan has moved to third place, having bought 1.8 tons gold, followed by Qatar (1.6 tons).

Uzbekistan was the biggest net seller: the volume of gold in its reserves decreased by 3.1 tons. There is also information about Portugal selling 2 tons of gold, but the WGC found it insufficiently reliable thus far.

Russia is one of the five leaders in terms of the share of gold in foreign exchange reserves. As of April 2020, its stock was 2290.2 tons, which amounted to 20.8% of the total. However, from April 1, the Russian regulator decided to suspend the purchase of precious metal in the domestic market.