100 Tonnes Of Gold: RBI Transfers Yellow Metal From UK, Largest Tranche Since 1991

The Reserve Bank of India has brought around 100 tonnes of gold from vaults in the United Kingdom to its vaults in India. According to a Times of India report, this is the largest such tranche of gold, that has been shunted to the country in over 30 years, since 1991.

822 Tonnes of Gold

In addition, in the coming months of the fiscal year, post the election results are declared, more such tranches are expected to enter the Indian territory. This is reportedly being done to reduce cost of storage that the RBI has to incur.

Currently, the central bank and the banker to the Union government, holds about 822.1 tonnes of gold. In this huge library of yellow, about 413.8 tonnes of gold were tucked away overseas.

As mentioned before, India has a cumulative gold reserve of 822 tonnes. According to the World Gold Council, this huge reserve places India fourth on the list of all the countries with the most amount of reserves. China tops the list, partly due to the country's central bank's recent spree of buying gold.

The Asian giant has a total reported reserve of 2,262.45 tonnes, China is followed by another Asian titan, Japan, with 845.97 tonnes of gold reserves.

It is to be noted that it is common practice for countries to store for gold reserves abroad. In fact, the United Kingdom and the United States account for significant amount of this storage. According to some reports, the per cent of gold stocked in these two countries is said to be around 50 per cent.

Gold Is Gold

The price of Gold has surged significantly in the recent past. For instance, in the city of Mumbai, where the RBI is headquartered, the price of 10 grams worth 24K (99.99 per cent pure) gold is at Rs 74,005.00. Gold is an essential strategic commodity, as many central banks have, in times of uncertainty, accrued significant amounts of it.

This happens to be the case, as gold does not come under the jurisdiction of one particular government, unlike the Euro or the world's reserve currency, the US dollar, giving greater agency to the holder of the asset.

In addition, the rise in price is not the only aspect marking the surge in demand for gold, as there is a marked rise in demand for physical gold, than for gold EFTs, establishing a varied trend of consumption and indicating a change in pattern of the same as well.