China Is Buying Gold at Record Pace. The UK Has Barely Moved in a Decade

EBM NEWSDESK ANALYSIS-By Katie Winearls

Central banks are treating gold as a geopolitical hedge, not just a financial one. The data shows who is building reserves — and who is standing still.

 China’s net gold imports via Hong Kong jumped more than 80% in April. The UK’s reserves have remained broadly unchanged for the past ten years. Those two data points, sitting side by side, tell a story about how differently the world’s major economies are approaching the question of what sits at the foundation of national wealth — and what the answer means for private investors watching central bank behaviour as a signal.

New analysis from The Gold Bullion Company, drawing on World Gold Council data, maps the current global gold reserve picture with a clarity that cuts through the noise around gold’s record price run. The total value of gold held by the world’s central banks now stands at $3.6 trillion. That figure is partly a function of price — gold has appreciated significantly — but the underlying tonnage tells a story of sustained accumulation by specific actors that goes well beyond passive price appreciation.

Who Holds What

The United States remains the world’s dominant gold holder by distance. Its 8,133.5 tonnes — valued at approximately $897.3 billion — represents more than double the reserve of the second-placed nation and reflects a position built over decades that has remained essentially unchanged. Germany holds 3,350.3 tonnes at $369.6 billion, followed by Italy at 2,451.8 tonnes and France at 2,437 tonnes. The European bloc collectively holds an extraordinary concentration of the world’s monetary gold — a legacy of Bretton Woods-era accumulation that has proven remarkably durable.

Russia holds 2,311 tonnes at $255 billion, a position built deliberately and systematically over the past fifteen years as Moscow reduced dollar exposure in anticipation of exactly the kind of sanctions environment it now operates within. China holds 2,308.5 tonnes — virtually identical to Russia — at $254.7 billion, though analysts widely believe the true figure is higher given China’s well-documented practice of accumulating gold through channels that do not immediately appear in official reserve disclosures.

Switzerland, India and Japan round out the top ten. The Netherlands, at 612.5 tonnes, holds a disproportionately large reserve relative to its economic size — a deliberate policy choice rooted in the Dutch central bank’s explicit view that gold provides a crisis anchor when financial systems come under stress.

The United Kingdom sits at 18th with 310.3 tonnes, valued at $34.2 billion. It has not meaningfully added to that position in a decade.

The China Signal

The 80% jump in Chinese gold imports via Hong Kong in April is not an isolated data point. It is the latest in a sustained pattern of accumulation that has seen China’s official reserves grow significantly since 2022 while its central bank has simultaneously reduced holdings of US Treasuries. The two moves are connected. Beijing is deliberately rebalancing its reserve composition away from dollar-denominated assets and toward physical gold — an asset that carries no counterparty risk, cannot be frozen by foreign governments and retains value independently of any single currency’s trajectory.

That motivation is not unique to China. Russia’s gold accumulation over the preceding decade proved prescient — its gold reserves were beyond the reach of western sanctions in ways that its dollar and euro holdings were not. The lesson has not been lost on other central banks operating in an environment of increasing geopolitical fragmentation. Central banks globally purchased over 1,000 tonnes of gold in both 2022 and 2023 — the two highest years on record — driven overwhelmingly by emerging market and developing economy institutions seeking to reduce dollar dependency.

Rick Kanda, Managing Director at The Gold Bullion Company, frames the dynamic clearly. Central banks continuing to build and hold gold reserves is a strong signal of how seriously governments are treating ongoing economic uncertainty. Countries are actively reducing reliance on fiat currencies and insulating themselves from geopolitical risk. The rising price of gold has pushed the value of existing reserves to record levels, reinforcing its role as a long-term store of value in volatile markets.

The UK Position

Britain’s 310.3 tonnes places it 18th globally — behind the Netherlands, Taiwan, Kazakhstan and a cohort of nations that have been actively accumulating while the UK has stood still. The UK’s gold reserve position is a direct consequence of Gordon Brown’s decision as Chancellor to sell approximately 395 tonnes between 1999 and 2002, at prices that turned out to be close to a twenty-year low. That decision — widely referred to in financial markets as Brown’s Bottom — reduced UK reserves from around 715 tonnes to approximately 310 tonnes, where they have remained ever since.

The cost of that decision, measured at current prices, runs to tens of billions of dollars in foregone reserve value. It also left the UK with a reserve position that is modest relative to its economic scale and its role as a global financial centre. The Bank of England holds and stores gold on behalf of other central banks — London is one of the world’s primary gold settlement and custody hubs — but the UK’s own reserve position reflects a policy choice made a quarter century ago that has never been revisited at the political level.

What It Means for Private Investors

Central bank accumulation at this scale and pace sends a signal that sophisticated private investors have been watching closely. Gold’s role as a portfolio hedge — against inflation, currency debasement, geopolitical shock and systemic financial stress — is not new. What is new is the explicit, sustained nature of sovereign demand at a moment when the international monetary system is under more structural pressure than at any point since the 1970s.

For private investors, the principle Kanda identifies mirrors the central bank logic — stability, wealth preservation and diversification through an asset that sits outside traditional financial systems. Physical gold, whether in bars or coins, carries no counterparty risk and is not correlated to equity or bond market performance in the way that most portfolio assets are. Anyone considering building a gold position should focus on established, reputable dealers, understand the premium structure on physical purchases and take the same long-term view that central banks apply to their own accumulation.

The central banks are not buying gold for quick returns. The April data from China suggests they are not about to stop.

“China’s gold imports via Hong Kong jumped 80% in April. Russia’s reserves proved beyond the reach of western sanctions. The UK has not meaningfully added to its 310 tonnes in a decade. Central banks are telling investors something. The question is whether private investors are listening.”

RELATED READS:

• Oil Markets, Iran and the Fed: Why Copper Is Caught in the Crossfire — The same geopolitical pressures driving gold accumulation are reshaping every major commodity market.
• China Cancels EU Diplomatic Talks — and Sends a Message Brussels Cannot Ignore — China’s gold accumulation and its diplomatic assertiveness are two sides of the same strategic posture.
• Europe’s Defence Stocks Rally Goes Into Reverse on Funding Concerns — The fiscal constraints limiting European defence spending are the same ones leaving UK gold reserves unchanged.