Top G20 Countries with Highest Gold Reserves

Last updated on December 19th, 2023 at 12:43 pm

On September 26, 1999, when a group of twenty economies came together to sign the formal formation of what is today known as G20, they meant business. And they have shown their economic capacity judging by the tonnes of gold reserves of the member countries.

G20 is made up of 19 countries and the European Union (EU) with the aim of addressing the major global economic issues, including climate change, international financial stability, and sustainable development.

We will talk more about the formation of G20 in another article, the focus of this article is to see the quantity of the gold reserves by the 20 central banks of members of G20.

The interesting thing about this list is that at the continental level, members Group of Twenty is doing well in the gold reserves held by their apex banks.

For instance, South Africa which is the only member of G20 from Africa ranks No. 2 in Africa in terms of gold reserves held by the South African Reserve Bank.

USA

The Federal Reserve of the United States is nobody’s mate in terms of gold reserves. Apart from being the No. 1 in South and North America (combined), the US has the highest metric tons of gold reserves in G20 and in the global ranking.

The US’s gold holding is 8,133 tonnes in the first quarter of 2022, the same holding as 2021. Gold reserves of the US are huge: if one metric ton is 35,274 ounces, it means the United States is holding 286,883,442 ounces of gold worth over $500 billion USD (by today’s value at 1,833.90 USD per ounce) in its reserves to edge inflation.

Germany

We pointed out the dominance of the G20 members at the continental level earlier, it also plays a significant role in their ranking here. For instance, Germany is No. 1 in Europe and No. 2 among the G20 members in the first quarter of 2022.

Kudos to the Deutsche Bundesbank, the apex bank of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Italy

Italy’s 2,452 metric tons place the European country in the 3^rd position in G20 for gold reserves. Its gold holding remains unchanged at 2451.84 tonnes according to data from WGC.

France

At the continental level, the gold assets of Banque de France (the Bank of France) place France in No. 3 while it occupies No. 4 at the G20 level.

Russia and China are 4^th and 5^th with 2,302 and 1,948 metric tons respectively. In Europe, Russia is No. 4 while China has the highest gold assets in Asia.

The table below shows the gold assets held by apex banks of 20 countries under the comity of twenty economies:

Sources:

• Gold Hub. “Central bank holdings”. gold.org