Mumbai, May 5 – The Reserve Bank of India added nearly 25 tonnes of gold to its reserves during the second half of the financial year 2024–25, a period that witnessed a significant surge in global gold prices. As per agency report, this addition raised the central bank’s total gold holdings to 879.59 tonnes by the end of March 2025, up from 854.73 tonnes at the end of September 2024.
The central bank’s semi-annual report on the management of foreign exchange reserves revealed that RBI increased its gold reserves by a total of 57 tonnes during the full financial year, marking the largest annual addition in seven years. This expansion coincided with a nearly 30 percent rise in gold prices over the same period.
According to the report, the amount of gold stored domestically in RBI's own vaults increased slightly to 511.99 tonnes. In addition to domestic holdings, the central bank held 348.62 tonnes of gold with the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), while another 18.98 tonnes were maintained as deposits.
Earlier, during the first half of FY 2024–25, the RBI had already shifted a substantial quantity of gold to local vaults. The volume of gold stored domestically had grown from 408 tonnes at the end of March 2024 to 510.46 tonnes by the end of September, in what was described as one of the largest transfers of gold within India since 1991, amidst rising geopolitical uncertainty.
The report also noted that gold’s share in India’s total foreign exchange reserves rose from 9.32 percent six months ago to 11.70 percent by the end of March 2025. However, the overall forex reserves declined to 668.33 billion dollars from 705.78 billion dollars recorded at the end of September 2024.
Despite the drop, the reserves remain sufficient to cover 10.5 months of import requirements, although this is lower than the 11.8 months’ coverage observed at the end of the previous half-year period.
