Hungary’s gold reserves have increased thirtyfold in roughly half a decade. This also shows that more and more attention has recently been directed towards the central bank’s gold reserves. They can be significant reserve assets for national banks.
Hungary’s gold reserves are significant
The global economic and political tensions of recent years have increased the role of gold in international financial systems. Gold, as an investment instrument representing safety and stability, received increased attention from central banks, which significantly increased their gold reserves. In particular, China, Turkey, India, Japan, Poland and the Czech Republic have stood out in central bank gold purchases in recent years.
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) has also taken great steps to increase Hungary’s gold reserves in recent years. For example, in 2018 alone, it roughly doubled its previous gold reserves of 3.1 tons.
And in 2021, by purchasing an additional 63 tons of gold Hungary’s reserve increased to 94.5 tons. This made the country the leader in the region in terms of per capita gold reserves. Despite the fact that the Poles and the Czechs also bought a significant amount of the precious metal in 2023.
Economx believes that these measures strengthened Hungary’s financial stability and improved the international perception of the economy at a time when the global economic environment was struggling with extreme uncertainties.
The biggest reserves
So, among other things, central banks view gold as a safe and physically durable asset that can easily be exchanged for money. Several financial institutions take care of the protection of gold reserves themselves, but it often happens that they store their stocks in other countries.
According to the World Gold Council (WGC), roughly a fifth of the gold ever mined was in the hands of central banks last September. The United States had the largest gold reserves in the world, totaling 8,133 tons. Behind them was Germany in second place with 3,352.6 tons, and Italy in third place with 2,451.8 tons. They were followed by France (2,436.9 tons), Russia (2,332.7 tons), China (2,191.5 tons), Switzerland (1,040 tons) and Japan (846).
