The Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region is hungry for gold. And the biggest proof of this are the record purchases of the precious metal from Hungary, Poland and even Serbia.
The first of them has tripled its gold reserves to 95 tons and does not expect to stop here. At present, with this volume of metal reserves, Hungary ranks first in CEE in gold reserves per capita in the region.
The country’s central bank said recently that these actions aim to stabilize the economy in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, the risks of rising inflation and rising public debt. This is what the author Christian Gerasim wrote in his analysis on the topic for the EUReporter platform.
Poland is another important example in this direction. Governor Adam Glapinski confirmed that the financial institution he heads aims for its gold reserves to reach a 20 percent share of total reserves during his next term, if re-elected.
Which countries in Europe have the largest gold reserves and where is Bulgaria?
Poland and Hungary are increasing their reserves in the precious metal at a rapid pace
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He confirmed that the Central Bank of Poland would buy at least 100 tonnes of gold in the coming years to “demonstrate economic power”. The country doubled its precious metal reserves by buying 126 tonnes in 2018, and returned another 100 tonnes stored in the UK the following year.
Serbia is also working hard to increase its reserves. “The engine of these purchases is the need to strengthen the stability of the Serbian financial system in times of uncertainty and to protect the country from the growing risk of a global crisis,” experts from the Serbian Foreign Investors Council explained.
Overall, over the last decade, some CEE countries have been actively increasing their gold reserves in order to reduce their dependence on other assets.
On the other hand, the trend for many of the major economies in Western Europe is the opposite – they are reducing their gold reserves. Eurozone countries have sold a total of 1,885 tonnes of gold over the past two decades, with total reserves declining by about 15 per cent. However, Germany, Italy and France remain among the countries with the largest gold reserves not only in Europe but also in the world.
