Just so you know: you also get 10 grams of gold from the central bank safe

Daily useless good news: theoretically, you would also have a deka of gold, if it were not accumulated in the central bank’s reserves.

What happened? Compared to 2018, the country’s gold reserves have now increased thirtyfold – writes Az én pénezem based on a professional article by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB), according to which we have the highest per capita gold reserves in the region.

What follows from this? This means that, theoretically, every Hungarian would receive 0.32 ounces, or almost 10 grams, of gold from the central bank’s gold reserve – even if the central bank did not own it in reality. Of course, the ratio is only used to show their leading position in the region, according to the MNB, Hungary was years ahead of regional and international trends in gold accumulation, from Poland to Turkey to Japan.

Context. The central bank summarizes that during the regime change, the gold reserve was reduced in several stages from 46 tons to 3.1 tons, and this stock remained unchanged until 2018. At that time, the central bank decided on a significant reserve increase, tenfold the stock of 3.1 tons at the time, and then tripled it during the covid, so that they would buy another 63 tons of gold in 2021, so the size of the Hungarian gold reserve rose to 94.5 tons.

The article also reports on foreign gold buying trends: in 2023, the total global demand for gold was 4,899 tons, which was a new historical record, and as far as central banks are concerned, gold demand increased in 2021 and 2022, and even in 2022 also set a historical peak with 1,082 tons. At the beginning of the year, we also wrote on Forbes.hu that according to the World Gold Council, roughly a fifth of the gold ever mined was in the hands of central banks last September.

Cover photo: György Matolcsy, President of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) gives a speech at the BÉT (Budapest Stock Exchange) Legek award ceremony at the MNB’s Buda Center on February 29, 2024.