RBI's gold reserve rises to 880 metric tonnes at September -end

The Reserve Bank’s gold reserve has increased 25.45 metric tonnes to 880 metric tonnes in the last 12 months till September 2025.

The gold reserves rose from 854.73 metric tonnes at the end of September 2024 to 880.18 metric tonnes at the end of first half of the current fiscal year — an increase of 25.45 metric tonnes. ”As at end-September 2025, the Reserve Bank held 880.18 metric tonnes of gold, of which 575.82 metric tonnes were held domestically,” the RBI said in its Half Yearly Report on Management of Foreign Exchange Reserves April-September 2025 released on Tuesday.

While 290.37 metric tonnes of gold were kept in safe custody with the Bank of England (BoE) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 13.99 metric tonnes were held in the form of gold deposits, it said. In value terms (USD), the share of gold in the total foreign exchange reserves increased from 11.70 per cent as at end-March 2025 to about 13.92 per cent as at end-September 2025, it said. However, forex reserves marginally declined to USD 700.09 billion as at end-September 2025 as compared to USD 705.78 billion as at end-September 2024.

During the half-year period under review, reserves increased from USD 668.33 billion as at end March 2025 to USD 700.09 billion as at end-September 2025, it said. Although both US dollar and Euro are intervention currencies and the Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) are maintained in major currencies, the foreign exchange reserves are denominated and expressed in US dollar terms, it said. ”Movements in the FCA occur mainly on account of purchase and sale of foreign exchange by the RBI, income arising out of the deployment of the foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts of the central government and changes on account of revaluation of the assets,” it said.